Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
by Trigger Situation
Summary: The looming shadow of Midgar was getting closer... Soon enough they would be entering into a new kind of prison - the plated city - and there would be no more sun or wind, just hiding in the dark. Eventual Clack, rating still in flux.
1. Get Out Alive

**Authors' Note: **This is a co-written fic by ServantofSHEVAL and FairWeather and posted on our new joint account! We got in a bored and angsty mood one night and this was the eventual product. Hoping you like, and don't forget to leave a review to encourage new chapter postage!

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So far, yet so close. Midgar stood just before him. His only obstacles were three last infantrymen; all their guns pointed at him. They seemed pretty confident at this point, despite the almost endless number of gunmen he'd knocked senseless. They knew he was weak and exhausted.

His SOLDIER uniform was soaked through with blood and torn in places where he'd been struck by bullets or shrapnel from the missiles while he'd been fighting. With each breath, it felt like sand was tumbling down his throat. It was so tempting to stop here and fall, to give up and just embrace death. He'd gone too long without knowing the comfort of being able to just... stop.

But he couldn't give up. He would not leave behind someone who needed him, who depended on him for survival. And his pride, dreams, and honor. He could not give those up either.

If he could fight off these last three, then maybe they'd finally be free. And even if he died trying, at the very least he'd try and save Cloud. Ancients knew that the poor blonde deserved it, after everything he'd gone through.

The weak grip on the Buster Sword's hilt tightened, and Zack forced his exhausted body to push onward. If he wasn't shot down, he'd lose consciousness very soon. Everything seemed so distant and far away, it was hard to make himself place things into focus…

But he knew that after he was gone, they'd discover Cloud... Zack grew somewhat more alert. The ShinRa grunts had shouldered their weapons. Zack Fair would _not_ fail. The bullets rang off, and Zack exhaled carefully, lifting his weapon and deflecting the oncoming projectiles. The distance between him and his foes was closed quickly, and he swept out one foot and caught one of the man's legs, knocking him down.

The other two, taken off guard, were quickly polished off when he picked up the fallen infantry man's rifle and shot them both neatly in the legs. Zack did the same for the one whom he'd tripped. The gun felt all wrong in his hands. Zack dropped it.

They couldn't stay, he knew. More would be here soon, and they'd definitely be screwed then. Wincing he stood and hobbled off to retrieve Cloud. He could make the distance before passing out, hopefully.

-

Almost there...

The first thing he'd become aware of was the light... blinding, mid-day-in-the-desert type of light, and Zack's distinctive silhouette just walking away... It was all he could have done just to reach for him, forget making a sound or getting up, just lifting his skinny arm took absolutely all the strength he had left in the world.

Since Zack had gone, though, Cloud had consented to just lie there as usual... Zack had left other times before, and had always come back. Each departure sent that dulled bolt of panic shooting out through his broken mind, but in the end it would have been for no reason. His empty eyes were starting to close, he was starting to succumb to the haze he'd only just managed to briefly claw out of, when the noise got his attention.

Gunfire. Lots of it. And suddenly he was awake and almost lucid, aware of it. Cloud toppled over onto his side, a desperate attempt at movement of any kind. He hadn't so much as flinched in days... now, trying to make his unresponsive body do his will was almost impossible. The blonde turned his head up, resting his chin on the sandy ground and squinting out to the horizon, where a dark blob was gathered against a cliff, and one lone figure, far off, was running to meet them.

"Zack..." it was nothing but a questioning whisper pulled from the depths of his dry throat. The crack of the rifles reverberated against the rocky landscape, magnifying the volume of the already terrible sound. Cloud winced and flexed his arms, kicked off with his boots against the rock behind him, inched forward just a little bit. The drag developed into a crawl, all-fours, toward the distance. He didn't know how far he'd have to go, didn't care... he had to get to Zack, somehow, eventually, it didn't matter. He _had_ to get to him.

By now, the last of the gunfire had long since stopped, and the glaring sun had been replaced with sudden, torrential rain. Cloud crawled through the mud and didn't care one bit how much he got on him.

-

Zack didn't make it very far before his knees gave out and he fell forward on his stomach. The ex-SOLDIER let out a pained hiss as he hit the wet dirt. There probably was going to be no moving from this spot, if the unresponsiveness in his arms and legs was anything to attribute to that. His sword lay just inches from his grasp, but Zack didn't even try to make a grab for it…

But there were no words to express his surprise and relief when he saw a spiky blonde head painstakingly making its way towards him. Was... was Cloud finally back? Really back? He could feel his hope beginning to rekindle.

Even with the pains it caused him, Zack awkwardly started moving towards Cloud as well, if only to confirm his suspicions. If he was finally able to see comprehension, recognition in the blonde's eyes again, he had no doubts that they would make it to Midgar.

"Cloud?" he called out softly, his voice strained as he forced himself across the slippery wet ground. Since the rain began, it had only gotten harder... the wet mud gave under his weak limbs, and he wound up making even less progress.

The boy let out little grunts of effort as he pulled himself along, until the familiar voice met his ears. Cloud weakly turned his face up again to see Zack, alive, but leaving a red trail in the mud behind him, an all-too-familiar shade washing into the drag marks, carried by the pooling water.

He tried, but he couldn't coax his voice out to call back. Cloud slumped in his spot, his head lolling to one side in a puddle and he reached out again, just as he'd done before, gloved hand outstretched and yearning to make contact with the other man.

Zack smiled the best he could in his condition. It probably turned out to look forced, but it felt good because he knew that he had a reason to really smile. Seeing the blonde reaching out for him, he did the same, sighing as their fingertips brushed.

He was never one to question feelings, but he knew that his ran deep for Cloud. How deeply, he wasn't sure. Maybe it would be better to not think about it. There were a lot more pressing matters on his mind at the moment, in any case.

"Hey, Spiky. Nice to know you're up and about... How're you feeling?" he asked, trying to make some form of conversation as they lay together in the mud. Zack didn't expect either of them to be going anywhere soon.

There was a moment before he showed any inclination to respond... and then it was a forced "Z... Zack..." he lurched forward yet again, like a caterpillar, it probably would've been funny in a less serious situation. When he fell back to earth, it was with a head on his companion's shoulder and a contented sigh. He could die here like this... felt like he was going to. His worn muscles burned with ache and exertion, and he could smell the metallic tang of blood in the air through the rainwater. Cloud let himself go limp again, let his eyes close. He was with Zack again... and there was nothing left worth fighting for.

"I'll take that as an 'Oh, I'm feeling perfectly fine'." Zack chuckled weakly, tilting his head slightly so theirs touched. It was hard to imagine moving further, but he knew they'd have to be on the move soon before ShinRa sent out _more_ troops to look for them. Maybe this time they might even send SOLDIERs, which pained Zack just to think about. An army of SOLDIERs...They were screwed.

Sighing, he stared hard at the dirt, trying to just focus on breathing and staying awake. It would be a week at best before his body was able to recover from the bullet wounds, and he'd still have to pull out the casings. They had a few hours at best to get moving.

Cloud's breathing evened out as he sunk slowly back into that almost comatose state... they were reunited again, so there was no reason to worry. Subconsciously, perhaps, he picked up on little things... like the way Zack would wheeze, from all the blood in his lungs, or how his warmth was fading slowly... but he didn't worry about them yet. Those striking blue eyes of his were just beginning to glaze again, not so much as blinking as the rain hit them and poured down his face... it tasted like sludge this close to Midgar, and... what was that...? Salt?

Something a little too familiar jarred his attention again and kept him awake, made him blink and tense up... Cloud's fingers closed into a tight fist around a rock in the wet sand. He would explore it further if he tasted it again.

It was getting really chilly. Zack wasn't so worried about himself at the moment than he was about Cloud. What if he got sick? It wasn't hard for anyone to figure out that rain wasn't exactly the best thing for the environment, in Midgar's case, or anyone in it. There were usually funky chemicals in it that killed off plants. Sometimes it was acidic enough to melt paint on buildings.

"Hey...Cloud? We'll be able to run the everything-business together, right? After all this?" Zack asked sleepily.

Zack's voice was normally the most important thing in Cloud's shadowed little world now... but at the moment, his words passed as garbled nonsense in favor of that elusive something. In fact, he didn't need to wait to taste it again, because that awful flavor never really went away... what was it? Copper and salt and just plain slimy wetness.

Cloud pulled back, away from his friend and looked across the void of rainy, greyish space into his distinctive mako-cultured eyes confusedly. His hand unclenched on the rock and reached up to touch Zack's face briefly, then pulling away...

...red. There it was again... there it was all around them, he realized with growing horror. Blood... and the more he looked at it on himself, the more he saw it all over Zack, coating him like a film. "Zack..." he whined, "Zack... y-you..." words came more quickly now, and it was strange... all along he hadn't been able to say a thing, and now... "...wh-wh-...what..."

"..hm?" Zack struggled to keep his eyes open. The veil of sleep was heavily weighted over them, and the ex-SOLDIER's brows furrowed as he tried to see what was wrong with his friend.

Was that...? There was a look of horror on Cloud's face. But why? After several seconds, Zack realized that Cloud was looking at blood. On him. Around him. From him. He cringed. That wasn't the first thing that Zack wanted the blonde to recognize.

"Yeah...I'm not...I'm not exactly feeling my best," Zack said carefully. He didn't want to upset Cloud anymore than he already was. His gaze flickered over to the bangles on his left arm. A mastered Cure materia glowed faintly in it. Maybe if...

"Spiky? Think you can do me a favor and fix me up a little bit? The green materia on my left... Just reach for it and concentrate the best you can. Promise, everything's gonna be okay after you do."

Cloud watched Zack's lips move and form around words, barely managing to string comprehension from what he said. Slowly, the boy's gaze drifted over and fell on the bracelet, the particular materia with the almost golden-green shade that Cure had. A look of determination settled over his scattered features and he reached down, plucking the little orb out of its slot and holding it in his hand - just as tightly as the rock from before, the gritty brown one still lodged in the soil between them.

He looked at Zack with stricken eyes and thought... really thought hard, and wished and hoped and concentrated... and something began to happen. A warm light glittered all around his hand and grew to encompass his body... and finally Zack's too, enveloping him in a shell of dry wind for a brief instant before retracting away, back into the dim jewel. Cloud replaced it and sat back, eyes wide, and waited.

Zack's eyes followed his companion's movements, though it seemed like hours before the blonde finally picked up the Cure materia. He watched patiently as Cloud concentrated on the small green sphere and even held his breath when he saw that familiar green glow.

Wincing, he sat up somewhat to allow the magic to more easily push out the bullet casings lodged in him. The wounds healed, though his skin was tinged a faint pink where it had been recently mended by the spell. His injuries were all healed up, but his energy was something totally different. He still felt worn out, but seeing what Cloud had done gave him more to carry on.

"Cloud, Cloud, thank you!" Zack hugged the blonde tightly. They were going to make it. They'd get to Midgar.

He gave a little sound as he was hugged, but Cloud's body went still again inside Zack's strong arms. "...you're..." the word played lazily across his lips... he meant to say it, a certain phrase, certain response, but it was there and gone in his fading mind. "...Zack." he meekly finished off. That word, at least, he had a firm grasp of.

He slowly moved, arms reaching around to take hold of the other man as well. He could still see the blood, that dark stain on the SOLDIER's clothes, on the ground behind them... but the rain had already washed the smell and the taste of it away, and soon it would all be gone... they'd be alright.

"Yup, that's me. Zack Fair at your service," Zack smiled, slowly pulling back. Things were looking up. The smile still lingering on his lips, the black-haired man stood, pulling Cloud up by his waist as he did so. His other hand grasped the Buster Sword's handle and deftly clipped it onto his back.

He still wasn't sure of the extent of Cloud's condition now that the blonde seemed more aware, but he figured that this would be nothing new for either of them. "Next stop, Midgar!" Zack cheered, airily using the mud to slide down the gently sloping cliff they stood on.

At the sudden action, Cloud clung like he'd never hung onto anything so important in his life. He felt the wind and the continued rain whipping against him as they went sliding down the hillside, and whined, and latched onto Zack even tighter.

Through the haze of low-hanging clouds, he could see the familiar skyline of Midgar rising off into the distance... Midgar, out of which would soon come pouring who knew how many more infantrymen looking for them... and, Shiva, he could have been one of them, sent out to kill Zack. Unhappily, the blonde buried his face into the bullethole-ridden shirt before him again and just waited for it all to stop... for a time when he could sleep again, because even this brief stint of being awake was too much…

Nevertheless, the despair that hung so heavily in the air seemed to all but dissipate. Yes, Zack was aware that Cloud still wasn't quite all here. It hurt to think about it, even after all this time. There was nothing more heartbreaking than that feeling of not being alone and yet being alone at the same time. Sometimes the silence just drove him insane and he talked to Cloud, often hoping that maybe one day, he'd get an answer. Today had been that day.

"First thing I want to do when I get to Midgar is buy a nice big cheeseburger. No more funky mushrooms for us. What do you think, Cloud?"

Though it seemed his talkative streak had run out... the only answer he got was a slight tilt of the head, a bob of those golden spikes as the boy looked up, just peeking beyond the protective cover that was the fabric on Zack's shirt to look up at him. Those big blue eyes locked on for a good long moment before turning back down.

The ground was rushing by under him... and the rain was getting lighter, the sun was coming out... and the looming shadow of Midgar was getting closer... he was content to let it just lull him... his newly revived senses picking up on all the things just swirling around, easily overloaded.

Ah, there wasn't much of a verbose response now. Disappointing, but at least Cloud had heard him, which was a lot more than what he'd received before. Namely, blank stares and some times even no movement at all. Zack smiled and absently patted Cloud's head as they both traveled across the wide expanse of wasteland. Soon enough they would be entering into a new kind of prison - the plated city - and there would be no more sun or wind, just hiding in the dark.


	2. Mako City

A/N (Fair Weather) : 'Lo! Here ( obviously ) is chapter 2 in our fic. This is...roughly about twice as big as the previous chapter, so more to enjoy, right? :P

Thanks for the review(s) - the more the better! ... and the faster we'll pump out those chapters. XD

My partner in crime says ...

"Hi!"

Epic. :D

ONWARD THEN.

* * *

Silence was a response he was accustomed too, but at least this time he knew for sure that Cloud had heard him. Zack smiled and absently patted Cloud's head as they both traveled across the wide expanse of wasteland.

Already, he could feel the formidable aura that Midgar emitted as they approached one of the gates. Here came their next challenge.

Cloud gave a content sigh and murmured affectionate, incoherent sounds into Zack's chest. He felt the shadow on him... soon they would be inside, but whether or not that meant they'd be safe, he didn't quite know. The blonde was hardly in any position to contemplate that. It was still beyond his grasp. What he did know was that... Zack seemed happier somehow. It made him want to... to try harder to stay awake, to speak, to work again... just to see the SOLDIER smile.

Zack hesitated when he spotted the first signs of sentries. He didn't know how far news of his escape had spread. The ex- SOLDIER looked around the dirt-beaten path. Maybe if they were able to hitch another ride inside...He stared at the horizon. It didn't look like anyone was coming through any time soon.

Well, knocking a few more people unconscious wasn't much of a problem by this point, he supposed. Reluctantly, Zack started walking towards the two men who were standing at attention. They seemed to recognize his uniform, though not his face.

"Sir!" they both said in unison, obviously trying not to stare at the tattered state of his person.

"At ease. I just want to get my friend to a hospital. We ran into trouble out on the wasteland," Zack explained, hoping he sounded convincing.

"Sir, yes sir! Please proceed," one of them said, moving out of the way.

That had been disturbingly easy, Zack mused as he disappeared inside. The guards were looking after him with awed looks.

It was a wonder ShinRa didn't have countless security breaches as it were...

Once they were under the Plate and out of the guards' view, Zack collapsed bonelessly onto the side of a building.

"We're here.." he breathed, slumping against the wall.

"Safe..." Cloud murmured in response, curling up against the other man. Physical contact had been the only kind of contact there was between them now... his mind was still too broken and his throat still too gummed up for them to carry on a real conversation of any kind. But if Zack was close, then he was safe - they both were - it was every time Zack had gone away that he'd gotten hurt... But that wouldn't happen again, now that they were in Midgar.

Midgar... He looked around... the dim light, the smoggy smell, it was familiar... but what now? He seemed to want to ask, but another "Zack...?" was all he got out. The upward inflection at the end was the only sign that there was any question in him.

"Just...Give me a minute for a breather, Spike," Zack sighed, looking around.

Some people were staring at them. That meant it was time to move. The first thing they had to do was get something decent to eat, shortly followed by finding a nice place to stay. A regular bed... It literally felt like a luxury - but one within reach.

Zack stood up, hoisting Cloud up along with him as well. "Come on, Cloud. Let's look for something to eat," the man said, wandering down the street.

He stopped upon seeing a friendly although somewhat run-down looking bar.

'Seventh Heaven', the sign on top read. Zack started walking towards it. What little gil he had managed to save on their journey would be able to cover them for at least a halfway-decent meal.

Cloud was still tired, but moving came easier now that he'd already tried it. Cloud flexed his arm around Zack's shoulders and pulled himself upright, trying to walk instead of just dragging his feet along... it worked to some degree, though he'd still stumble and trip. They seemed to be heading for a building, one he didn't recognize... maybe it was new here.

There was a man standing casually at the door, arms folded across his chest. He looked up when he saw them coming and turned inside, calling. "Hey, Tif... some SOLDIERs coming."

At the bar, a woman stiffened. She'd been wiping the wooden surface down, preparing to open. SOLDIERs... that was a bad thing when your bar doubled as a terrorist hideout. Her eyes grew hard and her jaw set, bitterness rising in her gut.

"Tell them they can't come in, we're not open yet." she ordered, looking back down.

Boy, whoever was in there was mighty touchy. Now that he stood in front of the door, he could hear someone talking to the ...guard outside. That was a teensy bit suspicious for a bar, but the voice inside sounded familiar. He felt that he should have known who it was. Zack glanced down at Cloud and bit his lip. They were still both wet from the rain, and he'd been hoping to get inside somewhere warm... Cloud...

Zack's eyes widened. Now he remembered. It was Tifa in there! It had to be.

"Tifa! Hey, Tifa! It's Zack - and Cloud!" he yelled, ignoring Tifa's friend - whoever it was - that tried to block him.

The girl blinked and looked up, utterly disbelieving... she peered through the screen door up front at the distantly familiar head of black spikes... and almost dropped the glass she was holding.

"You know these two, Tif?" asked the man, scratching his head confusedly. It seemed odd that Tifa would be friends with anyone in SOLDIER...

"Yeah, yeah... let them in!" she said excitedly, beckoning for the two to enter.

"Zack?" Tifa asked, "Zack Fair?"

Was it the same one from Nibelheim...? It still hurt to think about it, what ShinRa did... but Zack had tried to save her that night, so he was free of blame.

"Yes, Zack Fair!" he confirmed, glad to see a familiar - and best of all - friendly face.

"You won't believe how long it took me to get here," the ex-SOLDIER grumped, kicking lightly at the floor with the toe of his boot. He idly touched his frayed uniform as he entered, suddenly a little self-conscious. Whoops. It was a wonder they got very far with his clothes in this condition.

He hesitated a moment, then glanced down at Cloud. "Cloud, buddy? You awake?"

Tifa tilted her head. Zack was hard enough to believe... but then...

"Cloud..." she breathed, "...is it really you?" Her eyes were wide as she looked at him.

So... he really had made 1st Class, just like he said he would... or at least, it seemed so by the uniform. Strangely enough, upon sight of Tifa, Cloud had turned his head almost shyly, burying it again in Zack's shirt and closing his eyes reclusively.

"Is he okay...?" Tifa asked, straightening.

"Sorry, he's a little shy," Zack answered vaguely, squeezing the blonde's shoulder in reassurance. He wasn't quite sure where Tifa stood at the moment. What if she wouldn't mind turning them in to ShinRa for some extra gil? Zack somehow doubted that a nice girl like her would have ulterior motives like that, but you couldn't be too careful.

"We're both plenty tired. I could go for a quick meal, but then I'll probably be on my way, Tifa. Need to find a place to hunker down for the night, you know?" Zack smiled.

Despite the casual familiarity shared between them, the distrust in the air was palpable. For all she knew, Cloud and Zack had been sent to investigate her, scouting for the hideout's position... it made her heart sink to think that her friends would accept that mission... or perhaps they hadn't been given the choice.

"Alright. That I can do." she said with a faint smile, "And there's a couple halfway decent inns I can suggest. I don't imagine you two get down here very much..." Tifa walked back around behind the counter. "What'll you have? It's on the house."

"Thanks," Zack said gratefully, with a thin smile. Finally, he could do a little relaxing... As he sat himself, shortly followed by Cloud, the ex-SOLDIER took the time to look around. Comfortable, welcoming, he thought was he looked at the warm colours from the lights.

"So, Cloud anything you want? Or maybe we can just share. I'm not sure how much I can stomach without getting sick," he wondered aloud. "Although, next thing we're doing after we find a place to stay is buying some new threads. We could use them, don't you think?" Zack gestured at the front of his shirt as an example. "Although the gil problem is up for debate... What say you we do some odd jobs for now? Hunt monsters or something until we can really get our business up and running."

When he was sure that Tifa was gone and no longer looking, Cloud turned up his head again to peer across the table at Zack, obviously uncomfortable where he was. He looked over Zack's battle-worn appearance and almost smirked, distantly aware he was wearing a 1st Class uniform.

Yeah, they'd probably do better flying under the radar if they just looked like regular civilians, but finally having this on felt so... good. Like he'd actually accomplished it himself. He slowly wrapped himself around Zack's linear reasoning... get a job, get money, get clothes... yeah, sounded good. He nodded.

"Ah, good. So I wasn't talking to myself," Zack laughed, then turned to Tifa. "Sorry to keep you waiting. Our schedule is a little screwed up right now, and we're both having some financial troubles," the ex-SOLDIER admitted sheepishly. On the other hand, he knew exactly what he was going to order...

"Two cheeseburgers, please. With a lot of fries a large soda..." Zack trailed off, already trying to picture the meal in his mind.

"Coming right up." Tifa said accommodatingly, turning to walk into the kitchen at the back of the bar and disappearing behind the doors.

Cloud finally managed to crack a smile... hah, cheeseburgers, well Zack really was a man of his word, wasn't he?

They'd survived, made it to Midgar... and now they were going to eat cheeseburgers together. About time he and Zack actually shared a meal... they'd missed out when he'd gotten airsick in Junon, and Zack never did get back to him about dinner at his mom's back in Nibelheim... Nibelheim... some wires touched and made a spark in his head, but it quickly died. There was something he wasn't remembering there... why had it left in the first place? Ah, it didn't matter. The brief look of confusion was wiped off his face with a little laugh which he doubted Zack would understand.

When he heard laughing, Zack tilted his head and gave Cloud a funny look. Firstly, for having laughed at all. He couldn't really recall the last time he'd heard the blonde do that. Secondly, because he couldn't figure out _why_. Was there something comical about ordering cheeseburgers? Maybe, but whatever it was, it totally went over his head.

Zack stretched out his legs and slid lazily down his chair, not caring enough to support his own weight at the moment. "Feelin' good, kiddo?"

He thought about the question a little... probably a little longer than a question so simple would normally have to be thought about, adding the equation up in his head until at last he nodded. His eyes darted around to make sure no-one was looking.

"Zack..." he sighed, "...you?"

"Feeling pretty good myself. Still waiting for something good in my stomach," Zack answered. He wondered how he could gain more responses from his friend... "Do you remember how we first met, Cloud?"

Remembering things... that was hard. Hell, being here now was hard enough. Cloud frowned, closed his eyes, and thought. He remembered cold and fluttering snow, the mountains, a friendly voice and laughter. Not much else, though... but Zack had been kind to him, which was not unusual. That was what mattered. He nodded and sat up in his seat, swinging his legs under the chair.

A small, fond smile flittered across his lips as Zack watched Cloud concentrate on pulling those memories up. So cute. He was still waiting patiently for their food, but nearly fell off his chair when he felt something hit him in the shin.

"Eeeee-ow!" the man whimpered, both hands darting to where he'd been struck, apparently by Cloud's foot.

Cloud jumped in near-terror at the sound.

"Zack?" he demanded worriedly, leaning over the table to look at his friend, bright blue eyes wide and roving over the other's figure as he tried to decipher the problem.

"You two alright over there?" Tifa asked, poking her head into view as she backed out of the kitchen, weighted down by a large tray laden with their ordered food.

"Just...fine!" Zack said, forcing a grin and giving them both a thumbs-up. Whew, Cloud really had a nice kick... He absently rubbed his sore spot, then tried to continue as if nothing had happened.

"Nothing to worry about. Just had an encounter with the unknown under the table," the ex-SOLDIER added, eyes glued to the food as Tifa brought it towards them.

Blinking in confusion, Cloud briefly glanced down under the table (which totally wasn't a new way to hide from Tifa, no, not at all) to see what Zack was talking about.

"Here we go..." Tifa said, setting the tray down between them, a cheeseburger on either side, a soda cup with two straws, and a big heap of fries in the middle. She eyed Cloud for a moment, confused... he was acting really strange... and hadn't Zack said, the last time she met him, that there weren't any blonde 1st Class SOLDIERs? Well, that was four years ago... maybe Cloud had only made 1st recently. She tried not to think about it too much... but couldn't help feeling just a little disheartened that her old friend didn't seem... even remotely interested in even talking to her. "Enjoy." she said shortly, turning again to leave.

Zack, following Cloud's gaze, peeked under the table too, to see what the blonde was looking for.

"Sweet Shiva, that is A LOT of gum stuck under the table!" the black-haired man whistled. He figured that probably didn't come as much of a surprise since everything looked so used. Still, he couldn't even see the table under the wads of gum that were stuck in every imaginable opening.

He popped back up again, not willing to be distracted by gum for too long when he had real food sitting in front of him. Did that ever smell good. Without even a pause, Zack started wolfing down the burger as fast as he could.

Cloud shot Zack a confused look under the table, then reemerged as well and stared at his cheeseburger. He lifted his hands and stared at them curiously, as if not exactly sure how he should go about eating... but his stomach growled impatiently, and so he bypassed the slightly more complicated sandwich and went straight for the fries, popping them into his mouth one after another and watching Zack for demonstration.

"No, foo, there's nothing new tonight! We ain't going to be blowing up reactors every day," a new voice bellowed from outdoors.

Zack blinked, the next bite from his burger just inches from his lips.

Not long after the initial person had spoke, he heard the door click and a very...formidable looking man walked inside. One of his hands was gone, replaced instead by a hefty looking prosthetic gun. It wasn't long before the new comer noticed him and Cloud _peacefully_ enjoying their dinner.

"WHAT ARE THESE SHINRA CRONIES DOIN' IN HERE?!"

Cloud winced and hunched his shoulders slightly at the loud voice, glancing up at the newcomer not so much with fear as with curiosity. He didn't entirely seem to understand what he'd said, but continued putting fries into his mouth absently as the scene played out in front of him.

"Barret, calm down!" Tifa hissed, turning to him. She glanced at Zack and Cloud nervously. Had they heard the bit about the reactors...? Hell, who was she kidding, half the slums heard the bit about the reactors with how loud he was being.

"They're old friends of mine..." she said. There was an instinctual want to continue 'they're no harm', but... she didn't really know that for sure, did she?

Zack wasn't planning to say anything, hoping to let things burn out on their own. The only thing remotely interesting was that every time Tifa moved, Zack noticed that he was able to get a nice view under her skirt.

Funny, but it really wasn't...hitting him as much as he thought it would be. Shouldn't it be? Had he been NOT thinking about things like that too long? he wondered. Not that he was left too long to stew and think about women's underwear, but things DID have to be said when you're staring down a gun barrel. Or, in Barret's case, multiple gun barrels and this random muscular dude in your face. Actually, Cloud's face. That was reaaaaaally bad.

"Speak up now, foo, and tell me what you're up to before I blast you to smithereens."

"Woah, woah!" Zack said, quickly standing up and drawing Barret's attention to him. He held his hands up when Barret pointed his gun-arm at him. "I don't care what you wanna do, but leave my friend out of this."

Barret huffed, glancing over at Tifa. "I know they might be friends of yours, but we gotta be careful, Tif! You can't just let anyone in!" He looked back at Zack. "And you! Gimme one reason I shouldn't shoot you down where you are right now."

Zack bit his lip. There was a lot riding on his answer, and he didn't dount that this guy would shoot him.

"If you'd been paying attention roughly four years ago, you may have heard that ShinRa posted notices that I, Zack Fair, was killed in action. So technically, I don't exist anymore because we landed ourselves in shit at Nibel."

"Yeah, Barret... Zack is the man who helped me in Nibelheim... and Cloud and I were childhood friends..." Tifa added in the man's defense.

Killed in action? They looked pretty alive right now... ShinRa must have been covering for something... she didn't remember the report specifically, but then, she hadn't exactly been paying attention to anything ShinRa did at that time.

Was this reason enough to trust them? Her eyes drifted to Cloud's face... he looked so young, just like the little kid she remembered, as if he hadn't aged at all these, what, seven years? It almost bothered her. "Just... just sit down for a minute, let me get you a drink," she offered.

Cloud, seemingly utterly unimpressed by the sight of the gun, turned back to his plate, ate another fry.

"No, it's alright, I haven't touched my soda at all. Stay and pleasemakesureIdon'tgetshot," Zack pleaded with a strained smile.

Barret seemed to already be waiting for the rest of his answer.

Zack breathed in deeply a moment, trying to figure out the best way he could get his point across without having to say more than he needed.

"Well, no doubt Tifa's told you about what happened at Nibelheim. But anyway... Me and my dear buddy Cloud here were accused of destroying company property and we were pretty much locked away - considered dead in most people's eyes. I can only guess that ShinRa tried covering things up afterwards. After 'bout three years, Cloud and I were finally able to escape that hellhole. We were on the run for about another year before we finally made it back here to Midgar. You guys sure as hell don't have to worry about me going back to ShinRa anytime soon...Whatever is you're doing," Zack finished with an arched brow.

"Hmm." Barret looked thoughtfully at Tifa. "Sounds like they're telling the truth. At leas', if those holes in his shirt don't have anything to say. What do you think we should do about them, Tif? Can't let them just walk out of here after what they just heard."

"And whose fault is that?" Tifa's eyes narrowed as she glared at Barret. "We can't force them to stay here Barret, that's ridiculous." she hissed, folding her arms over her chest and turning to face Zack and Cloud again.

Barret gave a sheepish smile, refusing to answer the bartender's first question.

"Hmph. Well, what if we make 'em work for us? We could really use the firepower, if they're as good of friends as you say."

"Maybe..." Tifa murmured, looking over them scrutinously, as if attempting to detect future betrayal... Zack seemed earnest enough - he always did have an honest face... and Cloud... Her brow furrowed. "Are you sure... he's alright?"

Cloud appeared very befuddled, and was having some difficulty moving his fingers right to pick up the cheeseburger on his plate... he kept dropping it, and it kept falling apart, and each time he attempted to reassemble it by squishing the two halves together, it got increasingly more dilapidated looking.

"Cloud... He's...He hasn't been the same for a long time. Mako poisoning," Zack admitted sadly. The man seemed a lot older as he said this, immediately thinking back on when he first came to realize that it would be a long, long time before he saw any sort of recognition in those blue eyes.

"But, if that's a job offer, we're more than willing to take it up, if you trust us. Believe me, there's nothing left for me in ShinRa anyway, after what they've done. And Tifa, you know exactly what I mean," Zack sighed, shaking his head.

Tifa gave an empathetic nod and glanced at Cloud worriedly. Mako poisoning...? She was confused... how exactly did the two of them know each other anyway? Perhaps they'd be more inclined to give a fuller story later.

Cloud, in the meantime, had given up on his cheeseburger, and was happily slurping away at the drink.

"If you two can strike up a deal, that's good..." the girl glanced at Zack, "Do you need me to look after him while you're away?"

Zack frowned. "I honestly don't know how well that will settle with him." He found himself a little reluctant to be separated from the blonde for even a short amount of time.

"Ah, okay. I guess we'll just have to find out. When's the next mission, Barret?" Tifa asked.

"Two days from now," Barret answered. He eyed Zack, still somewhat uneasy because of the uniform. "If all goes well first time, I'll pay you 1000 Gil."

"2000," Zack insisted.

"1500," Barret growled.

"1800."

"Fine."

"You guys are still looking for a place to stay, though, right?" Tifa asked, glancing between the two of them, and for now ignoring Barret. "There's an inn across the street... I know the guy who runs it a little bit. Tell him Tifa sent you, you might get a discount." she smiled faintly, then remembered, "Oh wait, you're broke, aren't you?" she chewed her lower lip. "Well... I could put you up here, it'll be a little crowded, or... I could front you some money and you could pay me back later," the girl winked at Zack.

Zack idly wondered if Tifa was flirting with him. Maybe, maybe not, but he was concerned about getting him and Cloud some living quarters at the moment. Or at least privacy. Funny how he'd wanted to actually talk to average people for so long, and now he couldn't wait to just get out of here.

Then again, Tifa and Barret weren't exactly normal by ...regular standards.

"Well, I could just not make an initial payment and pay for rent a couple of days late. I'm sure mentioning your name would help there too, for which I really do appreciate, Tifa."

"It's no problem." she said reassuringly, "Why don't we go over together and I'll talk to him for you?" she suggested. Maybe she could pry out a better explanation for what was going on during the walk over... she certainly wasn't going to get it in front of Barret. "Just, ah... call me over when you're finished with your food. I've got to go check on Marlene, and you probably should too, Barret." she said, looking pointedly at the man as she made for the back room again.

"Sounds good to me," the ex-SOLDIER nodded.

Barret looked offended, as if he was going to do anything _but_. "I am, woman! She's my sweet little angel," he sighed dreamily, before following after Tifa.

"Okay...That was somewhat disturbing..." Zack mumbled as the two of them disappeared behind the doorway.

Cloud looked up as if caught by surprise, and put down the soda quickly... he'd drunk almost the whole thing by himself. Zack probably wanted some after all.

As to the question... he hadn't been paying attention and didn't know how to answer... even if he could. His eyes were duller now and his posture slumped again, as it had done before... he looked tired. The day had been a strain, and the current surroundings were... less than ideal. He still shied away from Tifa every time she so much as glanced at him, and there was this whole table between him and Zack. Already he missed the warmth, the security of before... he wasn't quite ready to stand alone yet. Or sit, apparently.

Zack blinked when he noticed Cloud's sudden change, and without even having to consider it, was by the blonde's side and holding him up by the waist to keep him from falling off the chair.

"Getting tired, huh?" the ex-SOLDIER murmured, running hand through Cloud's hair.

That was it... Zack could read him like a book, even when his pages were all torn up and in the wrong order... that was just what Cloud needed, and he leaned his slight weight against the other man with a contented sigh. His eyes drifted to half-mast, the way they'd been all along, but there was a difference there... he was decidedly present and aware. This time he actually felt Zack's soothing motions, appreciated them, and smiled... just a little.

Zack easily stood, supporting Cloud with one arm. He wondered when Tifa and Barret would be back, because he didn't want his friend to be feeling any discomfort.

A few minutes later, Tifa reappeared, walking back out into the bar. "All set?" she softly addressed the two, trying to keep her eyes off of Cloud. Poor Cloud...

"Yeah," Zack answered, smiling faintly. "We're going to get a place to rest soon, okay Spiky?" the man assured, tightening his hold ever so slightly to emphasize his words.

"Let's go."

Tifa held the door open on the way out of the bar and as they stepped down off the porch onto the dusty street.

It was almost sunset, but there was no way to tell save for the slight change in the quality of the air... it cooled slightly as buildings above Midgar powered down for the night, and the usual muggy temperature dissipated below the plate.

It wasn't long before the business for Zack and Cloud's apartment was settled, and Tifa had left after they'd received the key, bidding them good night.

* * *

Zack stretched gratefully out on the bed. It was only natural that Cloud slept beside him after all they'd been through, and he'd forgone the two twin bed room altogether in favour of the one king-sized bed.

"Ahhh. This is going to be home sweet home for a while. Or at least until I can find us a nicer place. What do you think of it, Cloud?" Zack asked, turning to face the blonde, half-expecting a response.

Cloud had easily nestled up right against Zack's body, founding that they fit together well... strangely enough. He'd been staring down, almost in awe, at the good foot or so of mattress that expanded on either side of them and down beyond their feet, marvelling at the room and the softness of it.

Down in the slums of Midgar, it was certainly no high-quality bed, but compared to the stony, root-riddled ground they'd been sleeping on for the past year and the cramped dusty ShinRa mansion beds before that, this was heaven. He turned his head up to look at his companion in the silence that followed the question, and in a slow, hesitant movement, lifted his arm and flashed a quick, uncertain thumbs-up.

"Good, because I'd have a hell of a time having to find somewhere else," Zack mused. He stifled a yawn and affectionately ruffled Cloud's hair.

"Well, I'm bushed, and I know you probably are too. Let's get some sleep - I want to see if we can earn some quick gil tomorrow and do something fun," the ex-SOLDIER murmured.

The blonde nodded, but slowly creeping memories began to come back... of the past year, of running - of being caged within his own body - his own mind.

Cloud didn't notice them at first, until all of a sudden, he realized he had some information that hadn't occurred to him before. Like how glad he was that he now had arms that could move... because for almost a year he'd been lying beside Zack, and always unable to do this - leaning over, the blonde tugged his arms around the other man's waist, holding him like a child might hold his teddybear. Cloud gave a gentle squeeze and lay his head back, relaxed... sleep would come easy tonight.

So close to sleep...- and what was clinging to him? Zack bit back a sigh and opened his eyes. He was somewhat surprised to see that his friend had wrapped his arms around him.

Not quite as sleepy anymore, Zack studied the blonde's face. He hadn't changed very much physically, but those eyes told him endless things only just today. They were closed now, but ...Even so, he was still compelled to watch Cloud's content and peaceful expression.

Funny, Cloud had never looked so...nice. Another word - more accurate! - temptingly pushed at him, but Zack ignored it. He brushed a stray lock of hair from the blonde's face before allowing his eyes to slide shut again. They were safe now.


	3. Getting the Situation Moving

A/N: Phew! The next installment in our fic. It's a bit of a slowdown from the previous, I think, but the next chapter should make up for that.

Not much else to say, except; Enjoy!

* * *

Waking up was a feeling he'd forgotten... but after the long, restful night of dreamless sleep, Cloud found it rather pleasant. The first thing he became aware of was the heaviness of his eyelids over his eyes; then the ambient light shining faintly in red through them, and then at last the great warmth he was tunneled into, between sunlight and blankets and Zack. His eyes flickered open, squinting in the brightness of the room, and found their way up to his companion's face, checking if he too had woken up yet.

The first conscious thing that Zack thought upon the stirrings of awareness was something like : 'We need to get moving before they find us.'

When he opened his eyes however, he was greeted with something... different. They were in a room - and a bed! So it all... hadn't been a dream, Zack realized slowly. He looked down at Cloud, who he now saw was looking at him.

Instinctively, Zack reached out to touch the blonde's face, as if to make sure he wouldn't materialize away with his touch.

After a brief unresponsive pause, Cloud slowly leaned his head into Zack's larger hand, even nuzzling it slightly and turning his big baby-blues back up to the man's face, almost as if asking for approval... and currently, rather like a cat in his reactions. With one hand he gave a slight wave before it plopped back down limp across Zack's stomach.

Zack smiled at the blonde's display, although he blinked at the rather obvious hand on his stomach. This was new. Everything felt fairly... new. It was an odd feeling, probably not unlike what Rip Van Winkle had experienced upon trekking back to town.

Before, they hadn't made much contact when sleeping side by side. Cloud looked rather content in this position, and just seeing something new from the blonde made his head spin. He was still accustomed to those mako-heavy eyes that revealed nothing under the surface.

Suddenly, he was acutely aware that they were rather close. Zack just figured it was only customary. It had nothing to do with how pretty Cloud looked in the sunlight, despite how... dirtied up they both were. Right.

"Hey, I think I'm thinking too much on our first day of freedom. Why don't we take a shower to freshen up a bit?" Zack abruptly suggested.

Shower. The word slowly materialized in his mind, and he thought about it... out of the rising vapors of hazy mako and unwanted grey memory that floated freely about his wreck of a mind, Cloud slowly conjured an image up. Bathtub... tile... a showerhead with water spurting out. Warmth, soap, clean. More words were dragged out with it, and slowly he began to understand.

"Yeah," he answered, pushing himself up.

A smile briefly appeared on Zack's face until the ex-SOLDIER realized that he probably had to be there with Cloud. In a shower... possibly naked. It wasn't like he hadn't seen men naked before, especially in the military setting he'd fallen into not so long ago. The thought just felt intimate, and it wasn't exactly on his mind to think much of it when they'd actually gotten a chance to clean up in a secluded pond or lake on the run. Did it make a difference?

Zack struggled to juggle these thoughts as he ushered Cloud up towards the bathroom. And what would they have to wear? Maybe he could call room service... He held up a finger for Cloud to wait before disappearing and reappearing again in about three minutes.

In the time Zack had gone, Cloud busied himself, having wandered into the bathroom. He had begun fiddling with the soap, turning it over in his hands like its texture was a new sensation to him.

When Zack returned, he had managed to successfully procure some clothes from the lost and found.

"Do you want... um, me to wait outside while you clean up?" the elder finally asked.

Still preoccupied with the soap, Cloud smelled it, frowned a little at the harshness of the scent, and at last looked up again when Zack spoke. It was an odd question, and Cloud bordered between the obvious answer: yes, and the more honest answer: no.

Could he do this by himself?

He looked down at the soap again with determination. Yeah... he probably could... or at the very least, would have to. Zack would be happy if he did. The boy nodded, stepping into the shower with his soap and already beginning to disrobe. The metal shoulder pauldrons hit the tile ground with a loud clank.

When Cloud had finally given his answer, Zack nodded in return, feeling lightly relieved to be saved from some of that awkwardness.

"I'll be outside if you need anything," he told Cloud before stepping out and shutting the door to the bathroom behind him. The ex-SOLDIER sighed and slid to the floor with his legs bent and laid his head back against the washroom door.

Tomorrow... tomorrow he would be separated from Cloud. Sure, it was for just a day, but he couldn't remember ever being away from his friend for more than two hours at most. He slowly blinked and stood when he heard someone knocking at the door, glad for the momentary excuse it gave him to pull away from his thoughts.

When Zack opened the door, he was greeted with a woman in her forties, with strands of hair flecked with gray and aging lines at the corner of her eyes and lips. "Here," she said, offering him a bag of clothes. "They're not dirty, but there's some scenting materia inside the bedside drawers if it bothers you."

"Oh, okay. Thanks for telling us," Zack nodded, to which his deliverer gave a curt nod before walking off, obviously with other business to attend to. He closed the door and dumped the contents of the bag onto the end of the bed.

Cloud managed to get out of his clothing and into the shower stall without much problem. He puzzled over the tap for a little while, turning on the water and having to dodge out of the way of the freezing spray. It took some playing around as the stream swung from icy to steaming before he got the temperature just right, and stepped back in.

The act of washing his hair came back very easily to him, and in no time the top of his head was covered in flowery-smelling suds which he was busily and happily working into every spike. When he was finished, he came back out, kicking his clothes away to the other side of the floor and grabbing a towel. He wrapped the cloth lightly around his head, completely unconcerned with covering the rest of his body as he walked out.

Zack was still sifting through the clothes when he heard the soft 'whoosh' the door made when Cloud had opened it, accompanied by a gust of warm air.

"Hey, Cloud, this stuff actually isn't that half bad!" he smiled, turning around and holding up a black t-shirt with a rather fierce-looking bright yellow chocobo on it. Zack blinked when he finally saw that Cloud was standing stark naked in the room except for the towel wrapped around his head. He cleared his throat politely and looked away with a slight flush to his cheeks and tossed Cloud the shirt. A slight stirring in his nether regions made him redden further, but he quickly stomped that little fire out before it could spread.

"Put that on," he said hastily, turning around getting some jeans and tossing those to the blonde as well. "I'm afraid nobody lost any underwear, soooo..." Zack kept his eyes dead set on some nondescript spot on the wall.

Cloud's motor skills weren't quite up to snatching the fluttering shirt out of midair, but he did pick it up off the ground (the towel somehow remaining steadfast as he bent, perhaps another skill so deeply engrained into his subconscious and muscle memory that he'd never really lost it) and pulled it on carefully over his head. If fit well, when normally it would have been overlarge on him... though still short and a little wiry, the years of mako exposure had bulked him up somewhat. He pulled on the jeans as well, which were a little tight (probably cut for a girl - that wouldn't have been a problem before), but he didn't care, and walked over to sit beside Zack again, peering at him intently.

"You look... good," Zack said after a moment of drinking in the blonde's appearance. And what he said wasn't a lie. Funny enough, in his opinion, Cloud looked a lot more appealing in these clothes than anything he could imagine Tifa wearing. He supposed this wasn't quite so good, considering one usually did not think of their best friend... that way.

"Uh, anyway, I'll take a quick wash-up too. Wait here, 'kay Spiky?" the ex-SOLDIER requested with a small smile. He ruffled Cloud's hair and started walking towards the bathroom.

"Okay," Cloud muttered, settling in on the bed comfortably again. It really was a very nice bed, compared to rocks... and it really was very nice to be in normal and at least relatively clean clothes, as compared to the gritty uniforms. His head sunk into the pillow, just one blue eye visible, tracking Zack's movement across the room.

Looking back over at Cloud once with a smile, Zack disappeared into the bathroom. He picked up Cloud's clothes and tossed them to the side, and his clothes joined the pile shortly after. Zack stepped into the shower, and stood there in the spray for several minutes before he finally reached for the soap.

When Zack finished, he took the remaining towel and tied it around his waist before stepping outside. He approached the bed, not worrying about Cloud for the moment as he seemed to be asleep. Picking a white shirt with a black, tribal-looking cat thing on it with a flame-tipped tail, Zack easily slid it on, glad to see that it was an acceptable fit. Along with those, he pulled on some gray cargos, nice and baggy. Boy, did it feel good to get out of those old clothes ...

"How's this look?" he asked Cloud curiously once he'd finished dressing.

Popping that same bright eye open, Cloud quickly scanned over Zack's new get-up, and flashed the same familiar thumbs-up to him from across the mattress. After a moment the boy stretched and sat up, unraveling the towel from around his head. His hair stayed frozen, as the material fell off, in the bizarre and arbitrary position which it had been originally wrapped up in. Perhaps that was his secret to looking so habitually bed-headed. Still, he ran a hand through it experimentally, as if checking to see if it was right.

"Alright! Now we're ready to take on the day!" Zack grinned, pumping the air with his fist. He glanced over at his sword, which lay propped up on the wall beside the bed and wondered if he should bring his weapon to town. Probably not, it would attract too much attention... Zack couldn't help but feel extremely vulnerable at the thought of leaving it behind.

Next up, they had to get something to eat. His mother had always nagged at him about breakfast being the most important meal of the day. Buuuut, before that, Zack actually took a moment to explore their little abode.

It was hardly furnished beside the bed, a few beaten chairs and a table, and a cheap television. There was even a small refrigerator, which was a surprise in itself. The oven and stove looked like it could use some cleaning up, but that was a problem that'd be easily dealt with when they had time.

Unfortunately, they didn't happen to be by chance stocked up on food.

"You hungry, Cloud? We should probably get going to Tifa's and see if she'll be willing to treat us... Or at least hack the price a little," he laughed.

Immediately the boy's shoulders sank and he whimpered unhappily.

Tifa?

Ohh, he didn't want to see Tifa... first there was that stupid promise, and then he hadn't made SOLDIER or managed to save her when she needed help, and now he was... well, now he was like this. It was just too embarrassing. But ultimately it was Zack's call, and all he could do was voice his discontent. Cloud grudgingly got up, head hung.

Zack smiled weakly and gently squeezed the blonde's shoulder. Poor guy looked so cute when he did that. He wondered what Cloud's history was with Tifa, as he had when they were in Nibelheim when Cloud had reacted not so differently. Were they close...? He didn't like the idea.

"C'mon, I'll be there with you. It won't be that bad," the elder reminded him, pulling the blonde close by hooking his arm around Cloud's shoulders.

Cloud leaned into the casual embrace more than willingly as they walked along, all set to bury his face in Zack's chest and hide as soon as Tifa came near. They still had to go down the stairs and across the street, though, so for now he stayed apart from Zack.

Looking out, those striking eyes of his big and responsive, Cloud was taking in everything in sight like he was seeing it for the first time.

They passed through the morning crowds of Midgar rather unnoticed (much to Zack's relief, it seemed like they weren't totally on the wanted list, which was also funny considering a whole army was after them just yesterday).

"Well, here it is. Seventh Heaven. Smells yummy from out here, don't you think?" Zack asked, rubbing the blonde's back reassuringly as they walked inside.

"Hey!" came the enthusiastic greeting from behind the counter. Tifa stood there, coffee-pot in hand, and beckoned them over to the bar, past a few other people, looking up curiously at the newcomers, who had decided to stop by the 7th Heaven for breakfast. "How'd last night go?" she asked.

The moment they stepped in, Cloud turned his head and hid his face, not even responding to Zack's question... though it was debatable that he would have even without the presence of Tifa.

"Pretty good, pretty good," Zack answered. "Considering they didn't know anything about us and that we were gonna pay rent a little late, ahem," he continued good naturedly.

"So... mission's tomorrow. You wouldn't mind feeding us a few and pointing us in direction where we can get some easy gil, would you? There's a lot of stuff we need to get to doing," he explained with a small smile, reflexively rubbing Cloud's shoulder when the blonde looked away from Tifa in discomfort.

"Hmm, well..." Tifa thought for a moment, "You can check out the Wall Market, if you know where that is... there's lots of businesses there, and someone must need an extra hand around shop for a day." the girl answered, shrugging as she poured out a cup of coffee and offered it to Zack. "If not, you can always hang out here and wait the occasional ladies that drop in. They'll probably tip you well." she smirked.

"Thank you," Zack said gratefully, taking the mug and draining a lot of the piping hot coffee. The scalding hotness at the back of his throat and on his tongue woke him up more.

Just two choices? And neither too good either. Ladies, huh! Zack as fairly certain that he was a hunk, but being hit on be women to get gil didn't sound very satisfying. Then there was Wall Market, or, as every Midgar citizen knew, the red lantern district.

His brow furrowed as Zack thought. They'd probably have better luck in Wall Market... "I think I'll just find an odd job at Wall Market," the ex-SOLDIER decided.

"Well, good luck then." Tifa said, disappearing into the kitchen to fix them some breakfast.

"How 'bout you, Cloud?" Zack continued, once their kindly benefactor had left to the kitchen.

Cloud looked up suddenly, as if surprised that Zack was addressing him.

Job? Him? He'd never had a job before in his life... except for working for ShinRa. He supposed... he'd do whatever Zack did, if they'd be willing to hire two people at once. Cloud looked back down at the counter top and merely shrugged. Blue eyes glanced nervously at the kitchen door, but Tifa didn't seem to be about to reappear anytime soon...

"I-I... don't know..." he managed.

"Oh, come on, don't look so surprised!" Zack laughed. "You're part of this too, you know. Can't have me doing all the work, right?"

For a moment, Zack stopped speaking to bring his mug to his lips again and take another sip before placing it down again. He licked any lingering coffee off his lips. "Hmm. I'll help decide for you then - or, you can tell me when you see something you wanna do. Whichever you like."

Cloud nodded assent and sent Zack a little smile.

The boy wasn't too sure about parting with his friend for the job, but... he supposed if it helped and earned them money... they wouldn't be too far apart from each other, would they? Might even be in the same place, if luck was with them. He could do this! It wouldn't be so bad.

"That's the spirit!" he cheered, playfully mussing Cloud's already impossible-to-tame hair. Zack leaned back in his chair and relaxed into it, pushing it back so that he could stretch out his legs with a lazy grin.

"It's too bad we probably won't be having any peace and quiet for another week or two... Mercenary work indeed," he mused.

"Alright!" came the call from the kitchen, and Tifa emerged, "It's simple and quick, but it's good..." she said softly, setting down two heaping plates of scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon before them. "Anything else I can get you?" she asked.

As soon as the food was put down, Cloud set on it hungrily... he hadn't had that much to eat the night before, after all... and putting his full concentration on that meant he could more easily ignore Tifa. He toyed for a moment with the fork before successfully spearing a piece of egg and shoving it in his mouth. There... now he had a reason not to talk either!

Zack rolled his eyes at Cloud's behaviour. That kid put way too much effort into avoiding interaction with Tifa. It was endearing to see him try so hard, sure, but the blonde would have to socialize more...

"Woah, slow down there. You're gonna choke on something. Remember your table manners!" the elder admonished lightly before starting to eat his own food. Zack savoured each bite. _Especially_ the bacon. "Dhanksh Teefu, dis is greath," he said through a mouthful of his breakfast.

The woman grinned and refilled Zack's coffee, "You be careful not to choke either, okay?" she hummed, sliding out from behind the bar to go make the rounds with the other customers.

Again, once she left, Cloud ventured to watch Zack from out of the corner of his eye. He carefully waited to finish chewing and swallow his mouthful before he began to giggle softly at the other man. Really, now... talking with his mouth open, strips of bacon hanging out... it would have bordered on disgusting, if it hadn't been so funny.

"Yup," Zack said, giving Tifa thumbs-up once he'd finished swallowing. Then Cloud had starting laughing. Which was good in itself, but it must've been something if the blonde was laughing at _him_. Had he done something funny? It wasn't like he was gobbling down his food or anything like Cloud had been moments before, right? He gave his plate a confused look, as if it was the one in the wrong. Oh well.

"What's so funny?"

He shook his head and turned away, covering his face with a hand in much the same manner as he'd done upon first finding out the name of Zack's hometown... Gongaga... it still was funny, and only made him laugh harder.

Oh! Another memory was back, then! The laughter came to a grinding halt as he paused to experience it more clearly. The wet chill of falling snow, a sore back from the helicopter crash, exchanging friendly chatter as he and Zack walked along the mountain path together, the first time they'd met... it was strange rediscovering these things he didn't know he knew.

Zack just stared disbelievingly at Cloud. Was there some sort of sick joke going on behing his back without him knowing? The way the other was laughing, Zack could only assume as such.

"Seriously, Cloud! What're you laughing about?" he asked, near pouting for an answer when the blonde had suddenly stopped laughing.

With a few stray chuckles, he managed to shut his mouth and stop for a second. Cloud scanned the man beside him with curiosity, his eyes considerably sharper today, as compared to before, when they were still covered with the haze of residual mako... it appeared to be dissipating at last. He took a breath, finally deciding to reveal the new source of his amusement, "Gongaga." he said with a grin and a half-contained snort. Cloud quickly went back to eating eggs... before Zack could pummel him... or worse, mess up his hair some more.

What! Zack gasped dramatically and leaned forward, then fell back against his seat with a shake of his head.

"Gongaga! What's wrong with Gongaga?! Just because it sounds funny," the ex-SOLDIER mock-sniffed. He shrugged it off good-naturedly though, and shoveled a spoon of egg into his mouth with a small chuckle.

Cloud finished his meal relatively quickly, gobbling down all the eggs and bacon and nibbling on his toast. When he was done he sat back and waited for Zack to be finished. He fidgeted awkwardly in his chair, as ready to escape the little bar as he had been yesterday. Cloud managed to keep his nervously wandering gaze off of Tifa as well, despite the frequent passing back and fourth between tables to bar to kitchen she did. His eyes stayed deadlocked on his companion in an unshaking stare.

Zack was nearly finished with his food when he noticed that Cloud was staring only at him while he ate. It was slightly unnerving and yet... not so. Unnerving because Cloud was just _staring_ so hard, and not so much because he knew that the blonde had his attention on him only. Even if he was eating. His own reasoning made little sense to him.

"Hey uh, Gaia to Cloud? You're doing an awful lot of staring," Zack noted, placing his fork down on his now-empty plate.

His response was delayed, but Cloud blinked and turned his face down, muttering a half-pronounced "Sorry..." and fidgeting some more. He eyed the empty plate pointedly and began to stand, slipping off the high barstool onto the floor.

"No worries, bud," Zack smiled.

"Are you guys headed out, then?" Tifa asked, returning behind the bar and shoving the now-empty pot back into the coffeemaker to brew up another batch.

Zack looked over at Tifa when she addressed them. "Yup. We're going to be heading down to Wall Market. What time should we be here tomorrow?" the ex-SOLDIER asked, sliding off his chair and pushing it in before he walked around to join Cloud, who quickly maneuvered himself behind Zack, peering over the man's right shoulder.

"Missions are at night," Tifa said softly, eyeing the other people in the bar. None of them seemed to be paying attention... "Drop by around four in the evening, there'll be food, a briefing, and we'll head out."

"Alright," Zack said with a nod. He glanced over his shoulder at Cloud with a slight smile, then looked back at Tifa. "Cloud seems to be getting a lot better now, but I don't think he likes people very much... Are you sure you can watch him tomorrow? I don't want to jeopardize anything, but I don't want anyone to get upset either."

"No, no, I'll be fine," she assured, watching Cloud carefully. In truth, curiosity was one of the main drives behind her offer. It had been years since she'd seen Cloud and now... well, he didn't really seem like Cloud anymore. She wanted to know why... what had happened... and who he was now. "Don't worry, Marlene and I will watch him," she smiled.

The idea didn't seem to sit well with Cloud, and his shoulders hunched slightly as he stepped back farther behind Zack, hoping the man would hide him... He reached out and clung to a fistful of the swordsman's shirt. Tomorrow was still a vague concept in his mind, but he knew Zack would be leaving... going back into danger. He might get hurt again!

Zack moved his hand over Cloud's where the other had latched onto his shirt and he glanced over at the blonde once with an affectionate look before returning his gaze to Tifa.

"I really appreciate everything you've done for us, Tif. We'll be on our way now. See you soon!"

* * *

"Humph. This place hasn't changed at all in the past four years," Zack muttered as they walked through Wall Market. There was still an astounding number of low-lifes hanging around. An even greater number of them were hanging around in front of Honeybee Inn, and Zack quickly veered away from that direction.

Zack pulled Cloud close out of habit as they walked down the street with him, keeping a lookout for any distressed-looking shop owners or job advertisements.

Cloud had not let go of that little snatch of Zack's shirt since they left the bar, and now only pressed closer still. He didn't mind it, after all...

...part of the danger of Midgar - in many ways, from getting lost, to getting stuck, to getting grabbed, and probably more - were the odd little nooks and crannies no-one noticed in the lower-plate darkness.

A sloppy laugh sounded out from one of them now, and a man's figure slumped onto the wall of a makeshift alley between buildings and debris. He looked like he could have been respectable, wearing a somewhat shabby blazer and rumpled button-up shirt underneath, had he not been drunk. It was apparent the moment he stepped into view, the air around him permeated with alchoholic reek. Slowly, his bleary eyes looked up and caught sight of Cloud.

Zack was immediately wary when the drunk man stumbled across them, but tried to ignore the smell as they walked past. Maybe if they pretended he wasn't there, he'd leave them alone.

"H-h-heeeyy..." the drunk man hiccuped, "...there, cutie..." an uncoordinated hand shot out, and somehow managed to grab a hold of the blonde boy's wrist.

Zack nearly lashed out when the man had reached out for his friend. He was barely able to stop from punching the man in the face from reflex; which probably would have at least knocked out a tooth or two had it connected. And that probably would have lead to some ruckus...

"Hey, let go of him," the ex-SOLDIER commanded, frowning.

The man looked up with a bit of a glare, apparently looking for a confrontation from this man he clearly didn't know was a SOLDIER. "And whhooo are yoouu, her boyfffffffriend?" he slurred, tugging sharply on Cloud's arm. "You don' wanna be withh hhimm, do ya, hhhoney?" he wheezed, reaching out with his other hand for the boy's face.

Whining, Cloud desperately tried to wrench his arm away, turning his head toward Zack to get it out of the man's reach.

"No, _he_ is staying with me," Zack growled threateningly, pulling Cloud towards him and placing his arms around the blonde's shoulders in what he hoped was a convincing gesture. The way this guy acted was already irritating, but that he was hitting on HIS Cloud just pissed him off more.

...wait a second.

"Come onn!" the man complained, staggering out into the open, "I'm jus' lookin' fffor a lllil fffunn..."

After all... the expensive Honeybee Inn wasn't an option for someone who had wasted almost their entire week's salary on booze. He stepped out, clumsy hand's reaching for Cloud's waist, "Come on... justa quickie..."

Cloud had settled very comfortably into Zack's protective hug, but as the man advanced again, he got a wild flare in his eyes and shouted a loud "No!", leaning back against the ex-SOLDIER's chest and kicking out with a leg. He landed the shot with painful accuracy, and the man buckled and fell to his knees swearing.

Zack was still somewhat lost on what he had thought earlier when he saw the blonde's leg shoot out and land on the drunk's crotch. Even he had to wince at that, but knew it would be a good idea to stick around too long.

"Thiiiis way," he muttered, guiding Cloud away by the shoulders in another direction. He suddenly caught an advertising poster that was looking for some temporary photo shoot models that paid well. That looked pretty easy. Zack squinted to see the small address at the bottom from where they were walking, then relaxed a little once they had gotten a safer distance away from the drunk.

"You okay, Spiky?"

Cloud stayed close as they made their escape... for about a block, he could still hear the sputtered swearing drifting through the streets... but it didn't matter. He was safe with Zack... that much was for certain. "Yeah," he said once they came to a stop, "I... I'm fine..."

Zack smiled and mussed up Cloud's hair.

"Good, good. Anyway, I think I've found our easy gil," he announced proudly as they stopped in front of a somewhat nicer looking building than everything else around Wall Market. "Just take some photos, snap snap, and we've got our money."

Photos? Modeling? Cloud glanced at his companion questioningly. He didn't think Zack would have gone for a thing like that, but... they were desperate after all. And how exciting! The blonde took a moment to try and salvage his hair... if there were going to be pictures taken of him, he had to look good!

"Sounds good." he said, grinning.

When he and Cloud had walked inside, the place wasn't too busy, only a few employees were milling about. At the far end of the room, the could see all the photo equipment that was set up. They didn't seem to be in use at the moment, but there were obviously some models around, judging by the way they dressed. Only seconds after Zack's observations, and eager-looking brunette approached them.

"Are you here to model? You two are just what we needed!" she squealed, pulling Zack and Cloud forward before either them could say anything. "I thought we'd never get anyone good enough for the job."

She lead them up to the photo-shoot area and held out a rough sketch of was looked like a man who had pinned down his partner on the bed... his partner who also happened to be male.

"There you go. I want you to imitate that - over there," she ordered enthusiastically, pointing to a part of the wall that was set up to look like a room; bed, end tables, lamps and all.

Seemingly nonplussed by this plan, Cloud slid the paper from her grasp and peered at it carefully, memorizing every haphazardly-drawn, minute detail so as to imitate it as best he could.

Hmm... well, this wouldn't be too hard... if he lay his arms up over his head like that (Zack would have to pin them down at the wrists, of course) and spread his legs just so... In a moment, he lowered the paper and looked up to his friend with a grin. This was so easy! He was going to be paid to lie on a bed for a little while as people took pictures of him! No problem.

It took a moment for Zack to realize that, yes, that was what they were going to be doing and that, yes, Cloud seemed willing to do it since it was so easy. Sure enough, the position wasn't very hard to mimic, but what it implied... He shrugged it off. It wasn't like they were doing anything bad - nor did they have their clothes off.

"Oh, and if you don't mind, please do this shirtless," the brunette requested before Zack started walking over to the bed.

"...Yeah," Zack all but muttered, reaching for the hem of his shirt and pulling it over his head. This wasn't going to be so bad... It was Cloud, after all.

Cloud stripped off his own shirt without hesitation, letting it fall on the floor without a second thought as he made his way over to the bed and sat down. He took a moment to recall the pose in the image he'd been shown, then artfully assumed it... an almost disturbingly accurate rendition, right down to a slightly distressed expression on his face that lasted for about two seconds before vanishing as he looked up to see if Zack was coming over. The effect wouldn't be complete without him...

Wow, Cloud was really... good at modeling. At least, that's what Zack figured would be the most polite way to put it. Zack approached the bed, looking somewhat apprehensive before climbing onto the bed and stopping over Cloud.

Again, Cloud broke persona for a moment to smile faintly at Zack. Something felt... a little weird. He didn't quite know what it was... maybe the bright lights shining onto the set, maybe the bed that wasn't actually fluffy and soft but just a wooden platform disguised under blankets, maybe... maybe it was Zack?

Naw, couldn't be... they'd been closer than this before, just... Oh well, no need to think about it now. He quickly turned his head to the side again, craning his neck as he stared off vaguely in the direction of the camera. His face felt a little hot... but it was probably the lights.

Perhaps it'd help if he tried imagining someone else beneath him. A woman? ...but for the life of him, Zack couldn't imagine anyone else beneath him at the moment. Not that shirtless Cloud really bothered him much at this point...

A light flush dappling his cheeks, Zack's hands gripped the blonde's wrists firmly and he leaned forward somewhat, eyes half-lidded and a smirk curled at his lips.

Even after the camera light had flashed, it took a moment for Zack to move away as he was distracted by the rosy tint of Cloud's cheeks. Just how aware had the blonde been when they had taken that picture? Zack looked away from Cloud and sat back.

Yes, he couldn't deny that even in his semi-mako poisoned state, Cloud was attractive. The question was - what did he feel about it? His thoughts were interrupted by their employer.

"Woah! Excellent shot. You guys HAVE to stay for another one! I'll pay handsomely when we're dooone," the brunette grinned, already fishing out another paper for them.

Sitting up and scooting over to the edge of the bed, Cloud eagerly accepted the second paper and shared it with Zack as he looked.

This sketch, still including the bed, depicted the two men sitting, one on the other's lap with their bodies flush up against one another. Hands disappeared up into the vague whispery strokes of hair on the paper, and their faces were so close, they might as well have been kissing...

Zack stared dumbly at the paper in his hand. The first one hadn't been that bad, but the second one was a bit of an overload for him.

The advertisement hadn't said anything about a _gay_ photo shoot... had it?

The woman smiled meekly at them for a moment. The somewhat blank look on the blonde's face and the reaction his friend had had made her briefly reconsider... maybe she shouldn't have given them the one of the kiss...?

"Not everyone who works here is, you know... most of them do it anyway because it's just a job, but since you're new, you don't have to if it makes you uncomfortable..." The shot would look good anyway because, well, put simply... these two were gorgeous.

Okay, Zack thought, you didn't necessarily have to be gay to kiss another guy. Which wasn't so bad, because he didn't want to wuss out or anything. Definitely did not want to wuss out...

"Uhm, if it's alright with my friend here," Zack shrugged, looking over at Cloud.

"...it's alright." Cloud said, peeking at the paper one last time before handing it back. He looked up at Zack expectantly, then over to the bed, hiding the same faint blush that had flowered on his cheeks during the photo shoot of the first pose, but, beyond that, displayed no other outward signs of distress or embarrassment... kissing Zack, huh? That would be... odd. Not bad, definitely not bad... but odd.

Their photographer smiled brightly. "Wonderful! Just get yourselves ready and I'll snap the photo, okay?"

Zack nodded, and walked back over to the bed with Cloud. As he climbed onto it, the elder absently wondered if he should be feeling this... enthusiastic about kissing another man. And that was only part of it. Maybe it was the novelty of experience?

"Ready when you are, Cloud," he announced, sitting on the bed and trying to picture what they'd look like.

After Zack had taken up his position, Cloud all but eagerly climbed up on top of him, wrapping his legs around the other's back and pressing against him... He leaned forward until their noses touched and his hands inched out, laying down first on the man's shoulders, then creeping up and disappearing into his hair. His eyes flickered, then slowly closed in anticipation...

The first thing Zack noticed as the blonde wrapped his legs around him was that yes, he was slowly turning very, very red and very, very warm.

Cloud obviously wasn't bothered at all. In fact, he would have said that the blonde was enjoying this. Which left Zack at odds, because he'd always seen himself as a billboard straight kinda guy.

Taking a deep breath, Zack told himself to think confident before one hand went down to rest on the blonde's hip and the other was on the back of Cloud's neck with the tips of his fingers pushed into his hair. Zack wasn't getting any bad vibes from this whole thing ...which was good. Closing his eyes, he pushed his lips onto Cloud's just as the camera flashed.

Cloud probably would have been considerably more nervous about the situation (for a variety of reasons) if his mind were more firmly attached to his body at the moment... and if this wasn't just business.

After all... that's all it was, right? Just some quick gil was all. He didn't know if that made him feel good or bad... but, subtext aside, the touch alone was nice. His eyes popped open and he (regretfully) broke the kiss to glance back at the camera.

The woman standing there wore a full grin, and sent the two of them an 'ok' sign. "Great! Even better than the first..." she giggled.

"So... do we get paid now?" Zack asked the woman, more than ready to leave. His hand had taken it upon itself to lightly touch his bottom lip, where the kiss still seemed to linger.

Taking the pictures themselves weren't so bad, but he had to wonder what would happen if anyone recognized them on the streets. A mob of new-bred fans for him and Cloud? Nah, no one would recognize them in this light...

This was a hard choice. The two were possibly only temporaries, so she wanted to get the most she could... It wouldn't be hard to shell out some extra gil for this gorgeous pair. They'd been wonderfully in-character for the photos so far, but she didn't want to go pushing the envelope, tempting as it was.

"Well, I do have one more - I'll pay extra, no worries," she smiled, handing them a third sheet of paper. This time, it depicted a man straddling another's hips and reaching for the zipper of his partner's pants.

Glancing over it, Cloud had no objections... though he had progressed now to gnawing on his lower lip slightly as he glanced at the picture. He looked up at Zack, who seemed antsy... oh, he hoped the man wasn't angry with him or something! He just wanted to do a good job, and if this photographer liked them so much, why not?

"Well?" he asked slowly.

"Umm, yeah. Who's going to be... on top?" Zack asked, looking at the photographer. She seemed to think about this for a moment, then said, "Your friend. He looks like one of those quiet submissive types, but once they get fired up..." she trailed off dreamily.

Zack's brows shot up at the mental imagery, but he quickly halted off his thought process before things took a turn for the bad and hastily made headway for the bed before their photographer could think of anything else to say.

Just a little more gil in their pockets, that's all. No biggie. It wasn't like his best friend was going to molest him in his current state. Or the other way around...

Once again, and apparently for the last time (though the last two times had also been 'last' times...) Cloud clambered up onto the mattress. He swung a leg over Zack, sitting himself on the ex-SOLDIER's stomach. He briefly considered his position, then scooted down to the correct spot. His hands hovered in the air hesitantly for a moment, before eventually coming down to the waistline of Zack's cargoes, fingertips slipping just below the edge as he thumbed the top button. He cast an uncertain look at his friend, connections slowly clicking in his mind... "...look happier..." the boy suggested. They were just pretending, but if this had been for real, Zack probably would have looked more excited... or so he hoped.

"Sorry," Zack quickly apologized, having been soooooomewhat distracted by watching Cloud. He quickly schooled his expression into one that suggested impatience. That part was easy enough, but he wasn't so sure he'd make a... lustful expression. Then Cloud had shifted his hand just so.

Zack lost his composure for a moment, but seconds later, he heard the camera snap and the saw the light flash, so that must've meant...

Immediately, Cloud withdrew his hands from Zack's pants and looked over at the woman behind the camera.

Well, things seemed to be going dandy for Cloud. He, on the other hand, was having some serious personal issues. Stuff he'd never actually worried mcuh about since he'd been so caught up in SOLDIER... Like his sexuality.

"...good?" Cloud asked, quirking his head to the side. In all honestly... that had been fun. Hopefully Zack thought so too, but it was fairly obvious, even to him, that they both were ready to finish up now and get their gil...

"Wonderful! I'll get your payment in a moment," the woman smiled brightly, disappearing a moment. Once she returned, she handed each of them 450 gil. "There you go. Thanks for your time."

"You're welcome," Zack nodded.

"Y'know, there's nothing wrong with liking it," she reminded Zack before he ushered Cloud out the door.

Cloud palmed his money covetously... oh, if Zack didn't make him give it to him, he knew exactly what he was going to do with it! Caught up in these imaginings, he didn't catch what the woman said to his companion on the way out.

"...Zack?" he said a few steps from the door, turning and looking back over his shoulder at him.

The man had been very quiet lately... not that they could talk much while they were getting pictures taken of them, but the usual loudmouth that he was, Zack would have found a way... and yet he hadn't. "...you okay?"

"Healthy as a chocobo. Don't worry about it, kid," Zack stated nonchalantly, ruffling the blonde's hair. Yes, he had indeed heard what the photographer had told him. He had a lot of thinking to do once they got home...


	4. A Ghost Between Us

**Authors' Note: **Hey there, SHEVAL here again… finally. Sheesh, two weeks away on vacation and my inbox is _filled_ with review alerts and favorite story additions and such… keep it up, folks, it's very encouraging! And hey, who knows, if I get enough people asking me for them, I might even scan and upload those pictures I drew of the poses from the photoshoot in the last chapter onto my deviantart…

Anyways, 'fraid there's not too much happening in this chapter either… darn! Oh well, I _promise_ the next one gets exciting. See ya there!

--

"Let's see, next stop - clothes shopping," the Zack said thoughtfully, leading Cloud towards another area. "If you see anything you like, let me know, okay?"

He nodded emphatically. Clothing shopping sounded good... what he wore now wasn't bad, but it was borrowed. He walked along the brightly lit Midgar street at his friend's side, letting his attention wander to the things around him... one thing was still very present, though. That tingling on his lips... he raised a hand and ran his fingers over them briefly, but no, it wasn't the same. He wasn't even sure what it was, but he had to find out. Maybe later Zack would help him.

"Weird. I think we went the wrong way..." Zack frowned as he looked around. There were throngs of burly guys walking around - which was really unnerving, ex-SOLDIER or not - and weapons, materia, and other not so respectable looking shops around. He mentally backtracked, then realized that they were supposed to walk a little further in this here before they reached the shopping area. Phew, okay, so they weren't lost.

Completely ignoring Zack, Cloud had begun to wander off on his own in the moment that the ex-Soldier took to contemplate their location. Something seemed to have caught his eye, and he was headed directly for one of those shady looking shops, which had a display rack outside the front door that seemed to be the object of his attention.

When Zack had gotten his directions back on track again, he felt a pang of fear when he noticed Cloud was gone. He scanned around him quickly, and spotted the blonde walking off towards an undesirable destination, and quickly ran to him, pulling the blonde back by the neck of his shirt.

"Woah, woah, woah! You nearly gave me a heart attack, Cloud! Where are you going?"

The sudden tug on his collar made him cough slightly, and Cloud sent a faint glare up at Zack once he'd recovered. "I want... to..." he began, searching for the final words to his sentence only briefly, "...buy something." he at last concluded.

"Oh fer- Look, I told you to tell me if you wanted to get something. I don't know what I'd do if I lost you here. Don't wonder off like that," Zack admonished, the fear and worry clear in his eyes. He sighed, and allowed himself a moment to calm down. "Alright, well, what is it you had your eye on?"

Cloud's shoulders slumped and he lowered his head slightly as Zack scolded him. His face was practically a pout when he turned back to the display rack in front of the shop and stepped forward to it. The blonde reached out and lay his hand on the hilt of one of the weapons - a slightly rusty and uncared-for sword that was, admittedly, probably too large and heavy for him... or at least it would have been in the past, who knew now? - it greatly resembled Zack's in size and weight, though certainly not in quality.

"Hey!" the shopkeeper's voice barked from inside the dark shop, "Paws off the merchandise unless you're buying it." the burly man lumbered out into the store and into the open to get a closer look at his would-be customers. One look at Cloud made him snort quietly and mutter, "Way outta your league, kid." he scoffed.

Unlike the shopkeeper, Zack did have some faith in his friend. After all the things Hojo had done to them, the one thing that he was fairly certain of was that Cloud had waaaay more mako pumped into him than he ever had, as well as JENOVA cells.

Driven slightly guilty by Cloud's crestfallen expression, Zack put on an encouraging smile and looked at the man. "Why don't you let him try and left it?"

"Pff." the man laughed and crossed his arms over his chest, "If that squirt can keep a grip on that thing for five seconds without dropping it, he gets it for free."

Cloud glared again at the shopkeeper and then, on Zack's encouragement, raised the sword off the stand. Honestly, he wasn't sure if he could do it... it looked awfully heavy, but in his hand it felt like nothing more than a wooden practice blade. Wow, this was easy! He grinned, and then decided to show off. He'd seen the action done so many times it was practically committed to memory. Cloud spun the blade around in his hand, watching it whirl through the air before him, then caught it at the handle and brought it down behind his back.

The shopkeeper looked flabbergasted, then turned to go back inside with a grumble, "...heavy-ass old piece of crap anyway... wouldn'ta sold for much..."

Watching Cloud, Zack blew a low whistle and had to hold back a laugh at the owner of the shop who had retreated back inside. It gave him a sense of pride to see his friend be able to lift the sword, much less flaunt it.

"Hmm, took that one from me, you did," Zack chuckled, ruffling the blonde's hair. "Way to go, you scored a free sword. Too bad it isn't it in such great shape though... Let's buy some polish for it and fix it up back at our place, hm? That poor guy has to get something out of us, I guess," the ex-SOLDIER smiled.

Cloud was, to say the least, ecstatic. He hadn't been expecting to get a free sword, first of all... but since he had, now the money he'd intended to buy the sword with could be put into fixing it up! "Sure!" he said excitedly, ducking inside the dark store to look around. He didn't know the first thing about taking care of a sword, so it was up to Zack to decide what other things they'd get.

The shopkeeper didn't seem too happy about seeing them again, and growled, "No more freebies after that, kid. You're buyin' everything full price." even the items on sale, but he didn't mention that.

"Fair enough," Zack shrugged, eyeing the "for sale: discounts!" sign over some of the shelves wistfully. He browsed over them, looking for the brand he used on his own sword. He found it after a minute or two of pushing things around and searching. There were only three canisters left, so he just took all of them and brought them to the cash register.

"Three Tonberry Super Shines. How much'll that be?" Zack asked, fishing out gil from his pockets.

The man eyed Zack for a moment, glancing at the cans... they'd been half-off when on sale, ten gil each... so for him "60 total." he answered gruffly, digging around behind the counter for a bag and tossing them in, holding his hand out for the money.

There was a slightly sad look on his face when he handed the man the gil. Half off... Once they had paid their dues though, Zack took the bag and called for Cloud.

"Alright, got what we needed. See anything else you like, or shall we get those new threads?"

"Clothes." Cloud said decisively, his new prize slung casually across his shoulders. Now he could spend all of his money on whatever he wanted. He'd look damn good by the end of today, and that was for sure. Shopping with Zack... for some reason the thought tickled him.

"Finally. Home sweet home," Zack said, tossing their bags onto the bed. The only ones he hung onto were the groceries. He glanced over at their small kitchen. They couldn't exactly mooch off Tifa forever, and the sooner they stopped the better, right?

"I guess...We're on our own for food tonight. Come help me, Spike. We can make noodles or something until I get us a cook book."

As earlier with the shopping, now the thought of Zack cooking was even funnier. Cloud couldn't help a giggle as he carefully set down his sword beside the bed. His best friend was quickly turning into a regular housewife... though, he supposed, only to take care of him. That made him feel more than a little guilty, and he quickly scuttled into the kitchen to join him.

"Do you think you could help me boil the noodles? I'll go chop up some of that pork we bought... and all that other stuff too," Zack said, fishing stuff that they didn't need from the bag and placing it into their small refrigerator. "Hm. Where's that... powder stuff..."

"Yeah..." Cloud muttered unsurely. Boil noodles? Yeah, he probably could. That wouldn't be hard, right? Just put water in a pot on the stove, simple! He set about rummaging for a decent-sized pot, found one, filled it with tapwater, and set it on one of the burners. At this point he was stumped... he found the proper dial to turn... but what number to set it on? The thing read 1 through 10, and he had absolutely no idea what that meant. Actual degree markers would have been helpful... or even better yet, a simple low-medium-high. "Uhh..."

Zack glanced over his shoulder, having heard his friend and figured that he was having some trouble. "Oh. Just crank it all the way up to max," he said nonchalantly before pulling out a cutting board and washing his hands at the sink beside Cloud.

"Oh..." Cloud looked a little skeptical, then shrugged and did as he was told. There was a loud 'whoosh' and suddenly blue and orange flames leapt up from beneath the pot, licking at the sides almost all the way to the top. The blonde literally jumped back in surprise before catching himself and trying to reach forward and salvage the situation before something started to melt... unfortunately, reaching around the now-flaming pot back to the dial to turn it down was much harder than he'd expected, and everytime he got near, he recoiled at the heat. "...crap!"

"What..- Holy shit!" Zack cursed, having felt the burst of heat, he had turned around to see it flare upwards and scald the ceiling. Obviously, he saw Cloud attempt to turn the dial up, but to no avail.

"Uhh, splash water on it! I'll turn it down while the fire's out...sorta," he ordered, moving away from the sink and nudging Cloud where he'd been standing.

It would be very simple to just dump the pot of water over onto the fire... except that the pot of water was in the fire. Cloud frantically ran to the sink, turned it on, then snatched the hose up from the side and clicked it on, spraying the light jet of water over onto the burner... and hoping Zack could reach the dial.

"Thbpft!"

A good amount of the water had reached Zack since his friend hadn't exactly taken aim when he had rushed to put the fire out. Nonethless, Zack squinted through the water dripping down his face and quickly turned the fire down to a more controllable level.

Cloud, in turn, switched the water off so as not to flood the place. He looked down at the ground, which already had a growing puddle on it, and more rivers of liquid coming down off the stove. He put the hose back in its place and went searching for a towel, though not before shooting Zack a half-accusatory, half-apologetic look and saying, "...you told me to..."

"I know, I know," Zack laughed shakily, running a hand through his now wet hair. He peered warily over the edge of the put to see its contents, and was a little surprised to see that the noodles looked... just fine. A little on the burnt side, but otherwise edible looking. That was some pretty tough ramen...

"Well, the food is still edible, at least," he said, scratching the back of his head in wonder before moving to look for some bowls.

There appeared to be no towels anywhere nearer than the bathroom, so that's where Cloud went. He returned a minute or so later and tossed a big one on the ground, shoving it around with his foot to soak up the spill.

"Leave that towel there for now. I'll clean it up later," Zack said, once the mess had been mostly cleaned up. He brandished two bowls of steaming ramen with a slight grin. While today seemed to have gone... rather well, he had no idea what was in store for them tomorrow. Definitely had to get a cookbook after the mission...

"Well, I say we go eat now, after all that," he laughed, shaking his head free of some water before moving past Cloud to walk back to the main room and set down the bowls on either side of the table.

Cloud followed Zack in and took a seat, he appeared to contemplate his ramen for a second before picking up the spoon and digging in... except that it was hot. He barely managed to get down the first mouthful without choking, and it seared all the way down his throat. He frowned and sat back, hungry but unable to eat, simply staring at Zack across the table, his arms folded over his chest. Well... despite the catastrophe, it smelled good... and what little flavor he had managed to pick out amidst the burning in his mouth tasted allright. Not bad for their first time cooking.

Zack watched Cloud with raised brows, quickly followed by a short bout of laughter as the blonde simply sat back to wait for the food to cool since it obviously wasn't very safe to eat at the moment.

"Gotta watch that hot food, huh? So how do you think today went? I think it went well, considering. Oh, and I'll have to show you how to take care of your sword, keep it nice, prim and proper... Auugh, then I get to show you how to bust some moves! That'll be great! Right, Cloud?"

"Yeah." Cloud responded, grinning. Training with Zack! It hadn't occurred to him when the idea of buying a sword initially had... but he supposed the ex-Soldier would be his only possible teacher. And he certainly knew his way around a sword better than... well, probably anyone in the world now that Sephiroth was dead. Sharp flashes of memory assaulted Cloud's head, and he winced, hunching over and putting his hands over his face. Fire and pain and the chilly ooze of mako... he didn't want to think of it, didn't want to remember it... it was too soon for that now, and so he let go, let the thoughts drift away... and he was back again, sitting there across from Zack. "I want to... know... everything you know." he said, hopefully covering for the incident... he watched the other man's face carefully for a moment before bending and taking another sip of the broth. Still too hot.

A concerned look crossed Zack's face when his friend's attitude suddenly changed, and he started to get up, though slowly sat back down when Cloud had seemed to go back to normal. Maybe... just an unpleasant thought? He made a mental lookout to keep more of an eye on the blonde as things progressed. Maybe he'd get better, maybe he'd get worse... Hell, he didn't even know how much Cloud remembered. And that might be part of the problem. Was it better for Cloud to just... forget everything that had happened to him?

"In due time, my friend," Zack smiled and responded somewhat belatedly, having lapsed into his own mental dialogue for a moment.

He could wait for that... for whenever that would be. Cloud had no reason to be impatient at the moment, for all he knew, he and Zack had all the time in the world... to do whatever they wanted. Which reminded him of earlier today. He idly raised a hand to his mouth, traced his lips... he'd have to ask about that feeling in them, the little tingle. Zack would surely know more of such things than he did. Zack had once had a girlfriend... at least once. Cloud had only had a crush... well, two, but nothing ever came of them anyway.

Zack leaned forward so that he was literally eye level with his bowl of noodles. Nearly a minute or two passed with him staring at it, until finally he deemed that they were cool enough to eat safely. He pulled back and picked up his spoon, getting himself some noodles.

It was a still a teensy bit hot, but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle.

They ate in silence, Cloud not saying a word either because of his tendency toward silence lately, or the fact that his mouth was stuffed with noodles. For the almost-disaster that it had been, they still tasted delicious. Not like Tifa's cooking, which, of the few examples he'd tasted, was simply fantastic, but for Zack's (and his) first time in the kitchen, it was a definite success. When there was nothing left in the bowl but broth, and it had been emptied remarkably quickly, he grinned across the table at the other man, getting up and lifting his bowl and spoon up off the table, holding a hand out for his friend's as well.

Zack's mouth swished to the side in a almost catlike grin. He'd finished at roughly the same time Cloud had, but pride niggled at him to take the dishes to the sink himself. However, he didn't want the younger to think that offer was not appreciated. He gave Cloud his bowl and stood as well, pushing his chair in as he went.

"So...you go wash those and I'll get your sword ready so we can get it cleaned up, huh?"

The boy's face brightened further at the mention of the sword. He snatched Zack's bowl and dashed off for the kitchen. The sooner he cleaned and sharpened it, the sooner he could practice with it, the sooner he could actually accompany Zack and be useful... like on that mission he'd be leaving him for tomorrow night. Cloud frowned as he dumped the broth out in the sink and ran the water over the bowls. He did a haphazard job of soaping them up and rinsing them out again, then set them down on the counter with a clatter to return. He plucked his sword up from off the wall and flopped down across the bed with it on his lap.

"That was... fast," Zack noted, his brows raising as he barely had time to pull out and open one of the polish cans before he'd turned around to see Cloud sitting on their bed with the sword.

He gave the can a little shake before pulling out a used shirt that he'd bought along with their clothes to use as a rag. A moment later, he joined Cloud on the bed and wetted the cloth with some of the spray, handing it to Cloud.

"Okay, you're gonna have to clean off all that ick. Don't scratch at the blade through the shirt, just keep swiping away layers until it's all nice and shiny."

Oh... well, suddenly this sounded like much less fun than he thought it would be. Well, it would be worth the effort. Cloud clamped his hand down over the bundle of fabric and began swiping furiously at the sword, all his concentration directed solely at the task before him. That tunnel-vision he seemed to have developed lately... after the mako-poisoning, it had yet to widen.

Zack blinked as he watched his friend work. So THIS is what Angeal had been talking about when he'd first showed him how to shine a sword...

"Woah, slow down, Cloud! It's not a race. If you do it that way, you're gonna wear out the shirt before you accomplish anything," he informed, pausing a moment to spritz some more of the shining solution onto the blade. "Take your time, but don't go toooo easy."

Cloud pouted softly when looking up at Zack, unsure where to place the balance he was talking about... but after a moment he looked back down and took a slower pace. "Better?" he asked after a moment. The rust did seem to be coming off at a more satisfying rate than before... in long streaks instead of that flurry of small flakes.

"Yup! Just like that," Zack smiled, holding up a finger to tell Cloud to wait. "Give me a second, lemme get something so we can clean up that rust and keep it off the blankets," he said, getting off the bed and disappearing into the kitchen. He returned a moment later with the towel Cloud had been using to clean the floor before after having wrung it out. "Lift your sword up a sec and put the towel underneath so you can catch the rust on it."

Taking a break from the rubbing, he did as Zack said, lifting the weapon and then replacing it as soon as the cloth was laid over his lap, then immediately continuing. He was determined to get this done tonight... judging by the pace and the amount of work he was putting into it, he wouldn't finish in time for them to do much training together until tomorrow... or later, maybe. That, and his arm was going to hurt like hell.

After watching Cloud for about twenty minutes, Zack finally put his hand over the blonde's to stop him. If he kept working on like that - as admirable his efforts were - he'd be getting that nice burning feeling in his arm in no time.

"C'mon, you're done for the night. Let's get ready to sleep. Busy day tomorrow," Zack said, capping the bottle. "You've got plenty of time to finish then too," he added.

Cloud came to a reluctant stop, looking up at Zack a little disappointedly. He'd wanted to finish tonight... but he put the sword, and the by-now thoroughly dirtied shirt aside for now. Bed... he supposed he was a little tired. Not enough to sleep yet, but if Zack was... the blonde tossed the towel on his lap away as well and pulled his legs up under the blankets.

"Forgetting something?" Zack asked with an arched brow as he nudged the dirtied shirt rag into the corner of the room. He walked over to their shopping bags and pulled out some sleep wear - a plain white shirt and faded blue sweats. He tossed them to Cloud before grabbing his own.

Oh, right... he didn't have to wear the same clothes all the time anymore! Cloud grinned brightly. That was a wonderful change from the past months. He wasted no time in stripping off his shirt and jeans (under the cover of the blankets, more modest than he'd been after showering the day before) and quickly replacing them with the new pajamas. "Thanks, Zack."

"No prob," Zack said in return, wandering over to the side of the bed where he was at least somewhat out of view. He quickly disrobed and dressed in the clean pair of clothes, nudging aside his daywear to the side before hopping onto the empty spot beside Cloud on the bed.

Cloud sat there, inattentive, staring off into space as a single finger traced his lips, around and around. He didn't remember the feeling quite well enough to describe it... and somewhere in his still-muddled mind, he understood that even if he did, the words necessary probably would not come readily to him. At last he looked up at the other man and nervously spoke, "Can I... ask you something...?"

Zack had been busy fluffing up his pillow (read: beating the crap out of it) when Cloud had spoke again. The elder paused, and turned curiously over to look at the blonde.

"'Course, Spike. What's up?"

There was another wavering moment of quiet which the blonde spent chewing on the inside of his cheek before he started, "...today, when..." stopped, rethought, continued, "...at the..." another blank, his forehead creased, he frowned, "...when we... did you feel it?" and Cloud suddenly came to the startling realization that maybe Zack hadn't. Maybe he hadn't felt anything, didn't notice that... that tingle, that spark, that annoying thing that Cloud still couldn't quite define. And now there was only one way to find out. If Zack didn't feel it now, then maybe he was hopelessly and unsalvageably crazy, but if he did... then he could ask.

All in an instant, Cloud reached up, clutching at the spikes of hair on the back of the other man's head and raising himself to eye-level with him. He stared into them, mako-blue on mako blue as he brought their lips together in a kiss. It wasn't long before he pulled back, pointing, and ran a thumb across Zack's mouth, his own once again dogged by the sensation. "Did you feel it?" he asked again.

Zack was left slack-jawed at Cloud's kiss. Definitely not the sort of ... question he had been anticipating. He blinked. Here, he took a moment to actually take in the blonde's question. There was a slight ... buzz where the blonde's lips had touched his. Not a bad feeling that screamed 'HEY! You're not supposed to be doing this!', a sort of 'hey, this is a good thing, should happen more often!' feeling. Only Zack wasn't quite sure of what to make of it. Did that mean he was gay, for feeling that way? Or maybe it was just a one-time thing. Or maybe it was because he was staring at sword rust too long. Or maybe it was just Cloud... Zack frowned.

He was seriously overthinking this, and Cloud was still probably waiting for his answer. "I..uh, yeah," he said stupidly.

A whoosh of a sigh flew out of him. So it wasn't just him. So he wasn't nuts. So Zack felt it too. So what now...? What did that mean? "What is it?" he asked frustratedly, "It... it's like..." he thoughtfully licked his lips, "...it's like you... but you're gone. Like a little piece of you is... left. A ghost of you, right here." he placed his hand on his lips again, showing, staring up at Zack. His rant wasn't the best support to showcase a mentally recovered state, but the problem was itching at him, and he had to know.

"Well, um..." Zack began uncertainly, not sure of how to treat the situation given Cloud's... health. He was still puzzling over this himself. "It's not exactly something I can put into words," the ex-SOLDIER finally said, still scratching at his head for a good answer.

"I don't know if it'll... make sense to you right now, even if I were to try to explain it. How badly do you want to know?"

Cloud frowned again at the assumption that he wouldn't understand. "I can know..." he said softly, "I want to know." he shifted his position and curled up beside Zack comfortably as if hunkering down for a bedtime story. He stared up at the other man confidently, waiting.

Great. So Cloud definitely had his heart set on this question. Not that you could really... blame him. Zack was the one with the problem, more than anything else.

When Cloud had settled beside him, Zack couldn't help but smile slightly and reach out to put an arm around the younger's shoulders.

"When two people have known each other for the right amount of time...They might start really liking each other a lot. And sometimes it's difficult to express your emotions, right? There's a lot of ways to show them, and kissing is one of them. It feels good for both people if they truly care for each other."

Somehow, that definition didn't quite seem to satisfy him... he already knew that, of course. That was... well, that was love. Did he love Zack? Cloud thought about it for a little while and couldn't find an answer. He'd never really loved... really loved anyone before, didn't know what it was like. If it meant feeling the ghost of their lips on him after every kiss, then he loved Zack. If it meant that impenetrable sense of safety, trust, comfort, then he loved Zack. If it meant the inability to live without him - and he'd already faced that nightmare once, out on the cliff in the rain before they'd reached Midgar - then he loved Zack. Maybe what Zack had said wasn't completely invalid, then... it just served as a reminder. The boy's fist had clenched around a snatch of blanket as he thought, silent, and staring intently at his friend's face.

Seeing as how it was impossible to read minds, Zack reflected on his own thoughts. He'd never once questioned his feelings before, not that he'd had much of a chance to. It was always worrying about this, or some other. But when things had nearly come crashing down that day before, all he could think about was Cloud's safety, that he failed, so far and so close from their goal. But...Here, now... Zack looked back over at Cloud, who was already watching him attentively.

Well, whatever it was, everything he lived for was laying right beside him. And that had to mean, naturally... Zack sighed and closed his eyes. Love, huh...

He wondered... and he understood, probably better than anyone else, how little he actually said anymore... For one reason or another, be it shyness, embarrassment, or just the inability to find the words to say, but... if Zack was telling the truth, about a kiss conveying that kind of meaning... Cloud smiled. That would be alot of kissing to fill in the empty spots. He wondered how many was too many... before it stopped being special. But he supposed with Zack it would always be special. Cloud nestled closer still, drawing an arm around the other man and laying his head on his chest.

"Hm... I guess there really is no denying it," Zack mused quietly as he stroked Cloud's hair. He turned his head, looking out their rather small window and watching the city lights flicker behind the curtains. Eventually, he fell asleep like this, one arm holding Cloud close and the other lying in the blonde's hair.


	5. Mission Start

**Author's Note:** Hey, ServantofSHEVAL again! Sorry for the length of time between updates, I had to go to college and all that… yeah. Anyways, the promised action is here at last! Enjoy, and don't forget to leave a review!

--

Come morning, Zack was rather against the notion of moving off the bed. The mission wasn't going to begin until late tonight, but he knew that he'd still have some preparations to make. Hoping he wouldn't disturb the blonde, Zack carefully eased Cloud onto the pillow and padded silently over to their clothes, rummaging through his purchases until he found something that wasn't so spectacular… should be good for the mission, he figured, taking the light grey shirt and jeans with him to the bathroom.

Cloud slept soundly through as Zack shifted him off... though he did clutch at the pillow beside him after the other man had gone. It was a while before he seemed to notice Zack's absence, and sleepily came awake, blinking in the late-morning light. He looked down at his pillow replacement and slowly pushed away, going a little red in the face as he did so. "Zack?" he called out softly in the empty room. His shoulders hunched and he stemmed off any further fuss... he was probably just making them breakfast or taking a shower. No need to worry.

It was about five minutes later when Zack exited the bathroom, toweling roughly at his hair as he walked out. He stopped and smiled when he noticed that Cloud had awoken.

"Hey, mornin' sport. Big day today," Zack said cheerfully as he folded the small towel. "Why don't you get washed up? I'll get something ready for us before we head over to Tifa's and see what's going down tonight," he suggested, quickly returning the towel to the bathroom before walking back out again.

Oh... oh, right. He'd almost forgot. The mission. The one that he wouldn't be going on... that Zack would be leaving him for. He already felt a nervous clutch in his gut... not that he doubted Zack could take care of himself, just that... the last time he'd gone out alone, it had almost ended in disaster. As Cloud dumbly got up, picking out a random set of clothes to wear for the day, he decided there was nothing to lose in asking, "Can I go with you?" he looked back over his shoulder, "...tonight, on the... mission."

Zack stopped at the entry way to the kitchen, frowning slightly. He didn't necessarily want Cloud to come, but only for the sake of the blonde's safety. This wasn't the same. There wasn't going to be just the two of them, and that meant more risks as it were. The chances of someone getting hurt, especially Cloud, were pretty high to him.

"I dunno, Cloud ... I'd feel a lot better if you stayed with Tifa. We're not out in the field anymore. If something goes wrong, it doesn't affect just us," he sighed.

So it was a 'no', then... his head hung just a little bit as he disappeared into the bathroom to wash up and change. Cloud spent an excess of time in the shower, just thinking... maybe if he finished polishing the sword today... he could lift it just fine, which was a thing that couldn't have been true of him before. He'd seen Zack fighting how many hundreds of monsters? It wouldn't be too hard to just copy those movements himself, would it? When the water began to run cold he turned it off and stepped out, dressing and going out to peek at what Zack was making to eat.

"Man..." Zack grumbled as he walked into the kitchen. He really did want Cloud to go, but circumstances being what they were made it difficult. Popping the fridge open, he scanned over what was available. Eggs, bread... Did they have any butter? Yup, okay. Bacon too, he was sure. Eggs, sunny side up, some buttered toast, and two strips of bacon. Typical, but tasty. He'd have to try more complicated dishes later on.

With the cooking chaos of the previous night still fresh in his mind, Cloud entered the kitchen cautiously and peered at what Zack was doing, opting not to help out. Skirting around the other man, he took a seat on the edge of the countertop by the stove. Bacon... he seemed to remember burning bacon once while trying to make his mother breakfast in bed when he was younger. He'd burned the eggs too. And the toast. The blonde winced at the memory, and silently prayed that Zack would do better.

When Cloud had just entered the kitchen, Zack had just popped the bread into the toaster.

"You're not gonna give me the cold shoulder today, are you Cloud?" Zack asked the blonde, giving him a mock-injured look before turning back to tend to the bacon and eggs on the stove. He still felt bad about not allowing Cloud to go, certainly not until the kid had some proper training...

"What?" Cloud gasped worriedly as Zack sent that look at him... "No, I... just..." how could he explain? It wasn't that he didn't want to talk to Zack, it was that he didn't want to talk to... "it's... Tifa." he managed to say... though even getting her name out was somehow difficult. "Not you." he clarified.

"Ah," Zack said understandingly, flipping off the stove light. He paused a moment to say something, then quickly changed his mind. The whole situation between Cloud and Tifa back in Nibelheim had been pretty iffy too. Bringing up the past to talk about it was definitely not a good idea with Cloud. "Well, brekky's done. Ready to eat?" he asked, grabbing some plates and nudging the eggs and bacon onto them with a spoon.

Cloud hopped off onto the floor and snatched up one of the plates, taking it out to the table in the main room to eat. He looked up sheepishly at the other man, muttering a soft 'thanks', though keeping the thing he was actually thanking him for deliberately ambiguous... could be thanks for breakfast, thanks for understanding the problem with Tifa, or anything in between.

The day passed with a lazy sense of purpose… every moment directly leading up to the summit of importance that was the mission tonight… as if every action was wasted if it did not directly play into preparing for the mission, which most of them didn't. Soon enough, it was time, and Zack lead the two of them down the stairs, out of the apartment complex, and across the street, where the briefing began almost immediately after they walked in the door.

"So...we're infiltrating here after we get past the security system. And the bomb is set for ten minutes?" Zack repeated, to make sure.

"That's right," Jesse confirmed. "The train leaves in about twenty minutes, so that gives us just enough time to get there. Are you ready?" she asked, walking up to the platform that would lift them back up into Seventh Heaven. She was shortly joined by Wedge and Biggs.

"Yeah," Zack nodded, wondering what Cloud would do with Tifa in the meantime. He obviously wasn't going to have anything more to do with the girl than he had to...

Cloud had been listening attentively throughout the meeting, hanging on every word, though he didn't speak at all during it. He was very much dreading having to go back upstairs and spend the evening with Tifa and worrying while Zack was out risking his neck so they'd have some gil to live on. It made him feel guilty... he should be out there too! His sword was all shiny now, and sharpened, and ready for action, despite the fact that he hadn't been officially taught any techniques yet... nevermind that. He could hold his own.

Zack paused at the door, looking back at Cloud. "I'll be back, okay?" he smiled, before shutting it behind him at Barret's kindly prompting him to hurry.

It wasn't long before they were in Sector 1, passing quietly through the crowds and making their way up to the reactor. They were met with some resistance, but compared to what Zack had faced before, the guards were no problem. What really stumped him though, was the security mechanism.

"All at once!" Jesse ordered.

-

...it was so much worse than he'd expected. Cloud found himself, after Zack had left, in the small back room of the 7th Heaven sitting cross-legged on a squishy rug between Marlene and Tifa. Tifa seemed to be trying to juggle the tasks of keeping Marlene entertained, and trying to trap him into saying something to her. He felt like a child (most likely because he had one tugging on his hair right at that moment, and there was nothing he could do about it) which the woman was growing increasingly exasperated with. And the worst part yet - she wouldn't leave! He almost thought his plan was busted, until Marlene had insisted on a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich for dinner, and the barkeeper was forced to go off and make it. "Now sit tight you two." she said, passing through the doorway and out of sight...

Cloud did so for a grand total of about three seconds before he was on his feet. He'd brought along the minimal Soldier armor he still had and his sword, and quickly donned them both, heading for the far window at the back of the building. Marlene gasped, "But... but Tifa said...!" she began. He turned and put a finger to his lips, staring at her meaningfully, which seemed to shut her up... at least for a moment. "Good luck!" she whispered as he slipped out the window, landing hard on the ground below...

Okay. From what he remembered of Midgar, and the plan from earlier, he could catch the next train as it did its circuit of the city in, well... he didn't quite know how long. There had been no clock in the back room, and it was impossible to tell how much time had passed with Tifa's ranting, but it was safe to say that he had to hurry. He took off running for the station. When he arrived, the train wasn't there, so he tried to look casual and innocent while reading over a schedule posted on the wall...

He caught the time from a dusty old clock mounted above the archway entrance, and if it was right... well, the next train would blow right through here and Sector 1 without making a stop at either location. That made things a little harder. Luckily, because it was not meant to stop, that meant there weren't many people hanging around, and all he had to do was sidle up to the tracks, keep an eye on the single guard, and watch for the light turning down the tunnel. A bolt of fear spiked in his chest as it drew closer. Oh, this was really dangerous! What if he couldn't do it? What if...

_NOW_! Something shouted out in his head to jump, so he did. He felt his hand catch hold of the side of a railcar, felt the rest of his body pulled along, and sent barrelling down the tunnel.

Sweet Shiva, he was actually doing it! Cloud was beaming with pride and excitement as he watched the tunnel whiz by. How would he know which was the right one? Well… there was a sign just up ahead reading 'Sector 1'… this wasn't hard at all! His mental plan had been vague at best to begin with, but things seemed to be falling miraculously into place, and he felt more confident.

Suddenly there was space and there was light beside him, and he literally stepped off the car and onto the Sector 1 station, where a few loiterers gave him odd looks before going back to their business. The cocky smirk on his face was quite reminiscent of Zack's as he followed the now-familiar path through the sector toward where the reactor lay. With any luck, Avalanche would have already taken care of all the guards and monsters ahead of him.

-

"Aaaaugh, I should smack you on the head! Why don't you let Wedge do it then?" Jesse grouched, giving Zack a look.

He held up his hands in surrender. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Here, it's all yours ... " Zack said, shaking his head as he backed away.

They got it on the first try.

Hey, now ... Zack was mildly humiliated, but what mattered now was that they had gotten to the next area - finally! Now, all they had to do was climb down a flight of stairs and they'd be inside the reactor. Piece of cake. A few more guards knocked out and a few random flying eyeball monsters later, they were standing at the door of Mako Reactor 1.

"C'mon, I need you to watch my back while I set the bomb," Jesse said, walking across the catwalk.

"Right," Zack acknowledged, following after the woman. He stood at the end of the passage way, holding his sword out at ready. The ex-SOLDIER turned around when he heard a loud beeping noise.

"Alright, we've got ten minutes. Let's book it," she grinned triumphantly, following after Zack as they walked back to join Biggs and Wedge.

-

He was in! After stealthily creeping up to the reactor door, Cloud was inside... he only hoped that he was in time, and the mission wasn't over for one reason or another. Quite the contrary, in fact, as he soon found...

Just beyond the first hallway was a double line of robo-guards. They were all lumbering along at their slow pace, all facing away from him, and therefore headed, presumably, in the direction of Zack and the others.

Not good. If a force this large caught them by surprise...

Cloud made his choice, and silently lifted his sword off his back. At least for the moment he had surprise on his enemies. With some luck, he could at least hold them off until the others came. Lunging forward, Cloud drew a long swipe across the back line, gouging deep into the armor of one machine, and cutting two more clean in half. Wow! That had worked really well! The rear line scattered, but the front turned around, alerted and prepared. With the whirring of moving parts, they all slowly leveled their guns on him. He clenched his fists around the hilt of the sword and held it, flat-side out in front of him like a shield, staring them down from his fighting stance. Well... what now?

-

"Hey... I'm not the only one who heard that, right?" Zack asked uneasily over the ticking of the bomb. He turned, seeking out the source of the noise. There, he could see a line of robot guards blocking their exit. What really made him wonder though, was the fact that they were faced away from them. His eyes widened when they started firing in that direction, and Zack was off, sword raised and cutting through two of the larger ones. They crackled electricity before falling apart, revealing a gaping hole in their line.

"Cloud?!"

He'd seen Zack do it before... blocking bullets with his sword, or swinging at them and sending them spinning off in safer directions... but it wasn't as effortless as it looked. The first few shots clanged off the flat of his blade, and for a moment he thought he'd gotten lucky... until one bore into his shoulder. Cloud gasped and faltered... he'd only ever been shot once before, on a mission, and had immediately blacked out, woken up later cured, so the memory of pain did not stick with him. Now, it seemed as if the ache bolting down his arm was too great to come from one small bullet. He swung halfheartedly with his uninjured arm, trying to stave off a few more shots and managing to smash another robot, wavered slightly on his feet and dodged by fluke alone another barrage... and then he heard the voice and looked up.

He met eyes with Zack across the room, but his blade was off to the side from the last attack, and his body was left undefended. Another machine turned and opened fire, and a few bullets landed and burrowed deep into his stomach. With a gasp, he folded at the middle and sank to his knees.

"Damn it," Zack cursed quietly, rushing forward and smashing one robot with the side of his blade. Its 'head' was sent flying, and the robot collapsed on the floor.

Sensing a new, more dangerous target, the robots turned their attention away from Cloud and towards Zack. The ex-SOLDIER's eyes darted to Cloud, and the anxiety and fear bubbled up in his stomach. Growling, he avoided a barrage of bullets completely by hopping onto one of the other robots and turning its gun turret on its own kind. He peppered the other robot down and then jumped away, cutting down the last one from top to bottom. It collapsed bonelessly onto the ground, which was already littered with gun shells.

"Cloud!" he called out, clipping his sword back on and rushing up to the blonde, kneeling beside him. Gently, he eased Cloud into his arms, laying him on his back as he fumbled for the potion flask he'd procured from guards earlier that night and ripped off the lid with his teeth. He pushed the bottle up against the blonde's lips, urging him to take it.

How could this have happened? He didn't mean to get hurt... Cloud clutched at his stomach with one hand while the other still grasped his sword. He gave a small groan as Zack turned him over, staring up at the other and feeling his face begin to flush with shame... well he hadn't proved himself at all. He'd gone and gotten hurt, and Hades' name, it hurt... as the potion was pressed to his mouth, he readily accepted it, drinking the liquid down and feeling the tingling begin to spread through his body... the hole in his shoulder shrunk together and the bleeding from his stomach stopped, the pain eased just slightly. "Zack, I..." he started, sitting up and wincing as he did so.

"Hey! Hate to break your heartfelt reunion, but this place is gonna fall apart in about five minutes," Jesse yelled, running past them with Biggs and Wedge in tow.

"Aw... shit." Zack looked over at Cloud. He didn't want the blonde running in this state. "Guess I'm gonna have to carry you out of here," he said, putting an arm under Cloud's knees and lifting him up bridal-style. "Hang on tight, buddy."

"Zack!" he hissed embarrassedly. It was bad enough that he'd humiliated himself trying to tag along for their mission (though not completely... he had cut down a few guards, and certainly spoiled the nasty surprise it would have been for Avalanche to come running out straight into a double line of gunfire), but now he was being hauled out in the arms of his best friend like he was some kind of damsel in distress. "I'll be fine..." he insisted.

"Not if we don't make it out of here before the bomb blows up," Zack told him with a shake of his head. "It'll be much faster this way. Besides, you've done enough disobeying for one day," the ex-SOLDIER reminded Cloud as he started breaking into a run after the others.

"I appreciate the help, Spiky, but you got yourself hurt ..."

Cloud slumped sheepishly in Zack's arms, hiding his face in the other man's chest and reaching up to link his arms around the other's neck... hanging on as he'd been asked to do.

It wasn't hard for them to catch up to the other members of AVALANCHE, but somehow Zack doubted they'd be able to escape the blast radius of the bomb completely.

"Uh-oh…" Biggs murmured, checking a watch on his wrist… "Bomb's going off in 3...2...1...Brace yourselves!" he warned.

The blast was a lot more powerful than Zack had expected - than any of them had, it seemed, given their expressions - and sent everyone off their feet. Zack had turned onto his side before they landed to take the burnt of the force when they hit the ground again. The ground was littered with dirt and debris now, and Zack coughed.

"You okay, Cloud?"

"I'm fine." he breathed, moving to get up again, even though he'd already been told not to. He peered out through the wreckage... there wasn't much left of the reactor than flames and twisted bits of metal, silhouettes he could barely even make out amidst the settling dust.

"Great. Oh, man... My arm looks fucked up," Zack frowned, grimacing now that the burn was really starting to set in. He blinked, realizing that Cloud had stood. "Hey, hey! Aargh, what am I going to do with you?" Zack grumped, standing up beside Cloud.

"I said I'm fine!" he tried to stress without sounding either angry or whiny... which was hard. His stomach hurt bad... and his posture buckled slightly because of it, but he was stubborn and kept standing, diverting the subject worriedly to Zack's arm as he reached up to carefully touch it at one of the burns. Didn't they have a Cure materia somewhere...? The same one he'd used the last time Zack had been injured. He was still determined to help...

"Ouch!" Zack flinched, reflexively pulling away when Cloud had touched his arm.

He sighed and tried not to move his arm at all, lest he irritate his injury. "Ah... please don't touch that," he murmured, rubbing at some dust on his cheek with the back of his hand. "Oh. Right. We were supposed to split up. Explains where the others went. Are you sure you can walk, Cloud? We're going to have to go through Sector 6, and that place is filled with monsters... "

"Yeah." Cloud smiled reassuringly. He could, at least, make it back to their room before he collapsed... he was fairly sure of that. It was somewhat miraculous, he realized, that he had gotten out unburned... though his boots were smoking a little, and he didn't doubt that they might be melted on the bottoms... but he supposed Zack would be to thank for that. He sheathed his sword on his back again and muttered "Let's mosey."


	6. A Moment of Courtesies

**Author's Note: **Ahaha, forgot to add this ... The note, I mean.

This is Fair, by the way. It seems like forever since we last updated! Been really pressed for time as of late because of all the work that school's been piling on. Ahh, life is tough, but, hopefully you'll enjoy this chapter and leave your thoughts for my partner and I on the way out. :D

* * *

"That was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be," Zack winced as they emerged on the other side of the train graveyard and at the edge of Sector 7

By this point, not only did Zack sport a nasty burn on his arm, there were also two handsome cuts across his left thigh via clawing of one of the local monsters as they passed through. His pants were caked with blood from the wound, and he was starting to feel a little woozy.

Cloud, still pressing a hand to his stomach to stem off the bloodflow (which had started up again, due to his walking) looked worriedly over at his companion for about the hundreth time in the last quarter mile which had, thankfully, passed in relative silence after the early difficulty they'd had in the sector.

"Where are we going?" he asked softly, meaning Tifa's bar or their own place. With the condition the two of them were in, they could have probably used the extra help of the rest of Avalanche to patch themselves up, but tonight, after running away, he especially didn't want to face Tifa...

"Um... I'd figure it wouldn't be too good for business if we stumbled in and Tifa happened to have customers," Zack mused with a pained smile.

"I still have most of our materia back at our apartment, so we can go there to patch up before heading back over to Seventh Heaven..." A small frown appeared on Zack's face as he started limping in the direction of their apartment complex. "But _you_ are going to _stay put_ at and _I'll _go over to Tifa's, okay?"

As much as he didn't want to be separated from Zack, that deal got him out of having to see Tifa, so Cloud grudgingly agreed with a small nod and veered off alongside him.

It was late, so they didn't have to worry about running into anybody as they crept up the stairs toward their room... which was good, Cloud imagined, because they both looked like hell right now. So much for their new clothes... if business kept up like this, they'd be needing even more very soon.

After the door was closed, Zack went over to the corner of the room where he'd stashed away a small pouch of their materia. Several seconds later, he reappeared with his Cure materia in one hand.

"C'mon, Cloud. You first," he said, approaching the blonde and focusing the materia's power as he went. The soft green glow of magic gathered in his hands left when he was close enough, moving over Cloud's wounds. Some bullet casings had been forced out earlier by the potion, but the liquid hadn't been nearly strong enough to completely heal the blonde.

Zack's spell completely did away with what remained on his shoulder, and shrank the three holes in his stomach until one was nearly gone, and the other two were just tender spots and pale scars. It felt much better... though he would have to clean off the blood. Cloud reached out as soon as this was done and took Zack's hand... or rather, tried to take the materia from it so he could return the favor. Of course the man could heal himself, but it felt... fairer this way. Besides, he was probably already worn out from the first spell, and all the fighting. He'd done considerably more of it.

"Thanks," Zack breathed with a relieved sigh as the worst of the burn had been healed away, leaving only a barely-visible discoloration on his arm that would be completely gone after a day or two. The two slashes on his leg were patched up as well, though still vulnerable to getting re-opened as the spell hadn't been able to penetrate far enough. "Man...you gave me a real scare today," he said quietly as Cloud handed the materia back.

"I'm sorry..." Cloud muttered in a practiced way he'd been thinking about ever since he felt the first bullet drive through his skin. It was an interesting sensation... unmistakeably unpleasent, but still... now, he thought, he had a glimmer of what Zack had felt like on that all-too-recent day at the cliffs outside Midgar. It was a grim thought, but nevertheless a meaningful one. "I didn't want you... to get hurt... going off on your... own again, like that," he lightly joked, at the same time drawing his arms apologetically around the other's neck. He'd always dreamed of being in SOLDIER... and while that hadn't happened, he was still determined to fight alongside one, always. He just had to learn to fight first...

"It's okay," Zack murmured, blinking when the younger had wrapped his arms around his neck. With a tired smile, he moved his arms around Cloud's waist and hugged him tightly. "I'm just glad you're in one piece."

"But!" he began again, suddenly "I told you I'd come back, didn't I?" he paused briefly before continuing, "Y'know, thanks. I'm sure we would have been in real trouble if those 'bots had caught us off guard. Can't have your efforts go unrewarded, though, huh? What say you we get some icecream when I come back? Sure is warm enough."

Cloud instantly perked up, despite his now-disheveled hair. Icecream! Awesome! He'd been sure Zack was going to give him some kind of lecture or punishment for sneaking down to the reactor, but no... not really. A bit of understandable sternness, a hug, a thank you, and now icecream... The boy nodded exuberantly to the idea, and could only say, "Hurry," in response.

"Alright. Just don't try anything like this again, you brat," Zack chuckled as he went over to their closet and grabbed whatever his hands touched first to pull them on. As he started to go, Zack vaguely realized that he was being extremely light on what Cloud had done, even going as far as to treat the blonde to icecream.

It was just going to be a one-time thing, he resolved to himself as he gave a small wave and closed the door behind him. Hopefully, there wasn't going to be a repeat of what had happened today again.

Out in the night air, Zack started jogging over to Seventh Heaven, apparently unaware of the stares he got because of the soot and ash in his hair.

--

"About time, foo! We thought you wasn't gonna show. Here's your damn gil," Barret said, pushing a wad of bills at Zack, who received them graciously.

"Thanks," Zack hummed, thumbing through his newly received gil to make sure he'd gotten the right amount. "Where's Tifa?"

While Barret had erupted into a stream of swearwords at the question, Jesse instantly hopped into place to calm him down, and Biggs looked up at Zack and answered. "Marlene told us she went off looking for that blonde kid you left here..." he started, "...but that was him that showed up at the reactor, wasn't it?" he asked cocking his head to one side slightly.

"Uh-oh ... " Zack frowned, feeling guilty. Tifa had already done a lot for their sake, considering what had happened in the past. "Do you guys have any way to contact her and get her back here? PHS or something? Because yeah, that was him who appeared at the reactor..."

Biggs nodded, "Yeah, I'll get in touch..." he said, beginning to dig around in one of his pants pockets to try and find the thing. "I just didn't want to call her in until I was sure it was the right kid I saw," he chuckled slightly. "You should get Marls to tell you her story sometime... how Tif left to make a sandwich, and the kid just suited up with armor and sword and everything right there in front of her and made an escape out the window. I think she's kind of taken with him."

Barret swore again.

Zack gave Barret a sidelong glance. Yikes, that guy could curse.

"I'll keep that in mind, although I suppose I'll have to hear Cloud's side of the story too," he laughed. It was a good thing none of them had stuck around to see what had happened after and during the fight then...

Finally fishing out his PHS, Biggs dialed for Tifa and waited a moment before she picked up... "Hi Tif..." he started, "...yeah, everything went fine. No, nobody's hurt... though I think the end of Jesse's ponytail got a bit burnt. Hey, listen, that kid you're out looking for? Cloud, yeah, that's the one. He showed up at the reactor with us. No, we didn't plan it like that. No, he's fine too. Zack's got him. Yeah, so you can stop looking now. Okay, see you in a little bit." he hung up and sighed, turning to Zack, "She's in the old playground... if you were here to see her it'll be about fifteen-twenty minutes."

"Oh, no, I was just dropping in to make sure you guys got back alright. Umm... Yeah. Tell Tifa I'm really sorry about the trouble. I didn't think he'd actually do that," Zack said, shaking his head with a small sigh.

"Ah, right. While I'm at it, I don't suppose you'll mind taking my number for future job opportunities, huh?"

"Sure," Biggs grinned, pressing a few buttons on the PHS until he got to where he could take Zack's down. "We'll uh..." he glanced at Barret a bit unsurely before continuing to speak for the group, "...let you know as soon as anything else pops up, okay?"

"Thanks," Zack said, nodding.

"There's gonna be a meetin' in a few days. Be there if you plan to get hired again," Barret added before Zack had left, to which the ex-SOLDIER looked over his shoulder and nodded his acknowledgment.

Now on his way back to the apartment again, Zack whistled quietly to himself as he unlocked the door and walked inside, scanning the room at once for any sign of Cloud.

In the time Zack had been gone, Cloud had washed himself up, chipping off all the dried blood with soap and water, and changed into a fresh set of clothes... one that wasn't marked with bulletholes and bloodstains. The old ones were laying in a heap beside the bed. He sat on top of it, sword across his lap, meticulously rubbing it down with the old T-shirt rag again to remove any damage it might have recieved from the battles in the reactor. He looked up as Zack entered the room, smiling. "Did you get... paid?" he asked, standing and setting the sword down against the wall, "Can we get icecream?"

"You bet I did," Zack grinned, pulling the aforementioned payment out of his pocket to show to Cloud.

"Here, hang onto this for a second - I need to go get washed up too. Then we'll be off," he continued, tossing the blonde the wad of gil before walking over to their clothes bags. He seriously had to organize this stuff into the closet later...

Cloud caught the money and watched Zack for a moment, until he left to clean himself off... then he absently began sorting it, arranging the bills from large to small, when something occurred to him, and he winced, calling out to the other man, "...was Tifa there...?"

Zack stopped by the doorframe and looked over his shoulder at Cloud.

"She wasn't; which I guess is a good thing. Next time you see her... You should apologize. I'm not saying you have to, but I'm sure she'd appreciate it," he advised, before entering the bathroom and closing the door behind him.

Ooh... so she had gone out after him. Well, Tifa had always been one for going out and doing things herself. He did feel a little guilty for making her worry like that, but speaking to her face to face...? An apology, no less? Could he manage it? The boy bit his lip... he had his doubts. Maybe if she approached him first the next time they saw her... but he wasn't about to seek her out on his own.

Zack was sporting a grin when he stepped out of the shower, feeling a lot better than he had been before entering. His leg would be sore until at least tomorrow, but that was alright. Getting some icecream with Cloud would take his mind off it.

"Hey, Cloud! Ready to go, buddy?"

"Uh-huh." Cloud nodded, hopping off the bed and making his way immediately to Zack's side, handing over the fistful of gil he'd been tossed earlier. He opened the door eagerly and stepped out, making his way down the stairs onto the street, periodically looking back to see if Zack was following. Outside, he stopped, unsure of where to go to find icecream in Midgar.

"Hmm..." Zack murmured thoughtfully as they stood outside. "Oh! I know a good place. Down by the train station. Little snack shop that sells icecream. This way," he grinned, one hand in the pocket where he'd stashed the gil.

Cloud grinned back and followed along after, moving to the side with Zack's free hand and carefully slipping his own into it, taking a loose grip in case the other man decided to pull away. He hoped he wouldn't...

"Mm?" Zack turned to look over at the blonde when he'd linked their hands, and then realized that Cloud had just wanted to hold hands while they walked. He smiled, then squeezed Cloud's hand without pulling away.

Who gave a damn anymore...

At the tightening of the grip, Cloud felt reassured and went the whole way, weaving their fingers together and beginning to swing their arms lightly in time to the step... He could still feel the painful echoes of the bullets hitting him from earlier... but they'd gotten out okay, and Zack hadn't been too angry, and now they were holding hands and getting icecream. Today was, all in all, a good day.

"Here we are!" Zack announced needlessly as they walked into the small shop. The man behind the counter looked up and gave a small wave and finished washing his hands before walking up to the register, watching them with a smile.

"Hello, sirs! What'll you have today?" he asked cheerily, adjusting his paper cap.

Leading them over to look at their availible choices, Zack placed his hands on the glass and skimmed over the icecream labels. "See anything good, Cloud?"

Cloud leaned over as well, staring down into the display of icecream tubs, each of them labeled with a little peice of tape and a scrawled-on name of the flavor. It was a moment before he found the right one and looked up decisively, proclaiming, "Birthday Cake."

Zack tilted his head a moment, looking over at Cloud and at the icecream again.

"Um... okay. What kind of birthday cake?" he asked, eyeing the mint icecream and considering to buy a box and bring it back with them.

"Vanilla," he specified, waiting to see what Zack would get and inwardly hoping it would be a flavor he liked, so he could steal a little for himself.

Now that was something strange, though, he just realized. Where the hell had he pulled out words like 'birthday cake' and 'vanilla' when he still couldn't get himself to say something as simple as 'shower' or 'blanket' in normal conversation. He looked down into the display of icecream again, at the little faded labels. That must be it... or at least something - reading. "Zack..." he said suddenly, looking up, "...can we go somewhere else after this?"

"Okay, vanilla it is," he repeated, moving to stand in front of the counter where the tender stood.

"Vanilla ice cream cake?" Zack inquired.

"Uh-hm... I think we have that, hold on while I go check in the back room," the employee said, holding up a finger before disappearing behind the doors.

Zack turned to Cloud. "Sure, Spike. Do you have a place in mind?"

"Yeah." Cloud answered... without really divulging any information at all. He did that a lot recently... for somewhat understandable reasons. But at least he claimed to have a plan. For the moment, he was eyeing the icecream cake hungrily.

"...okay." Zack looked questioningly at Cloud, wondering what the blonde was thinking. He wasn't sure whether or not Cloud was trying to purposefully keep their next destination a secret, but he wasn't about to press.

"Here you are. That's 23 gil," the man said, pushing a box with a plastic-view on it so that they could see the cake inside. Forks were taped on the top.

"Ah, thanks," Zack said, fishing in his pocket for the correct amount of gil and pushing it onto the counter. "So, Cloud, you want to eat this on the go or find a place to sit?"

The boy shrugged indecisively, "Whatever you want." he said. He wanted to get on to his next destination... but icecream cake was a little bit difficult to eat while walking.

"Let's find somewhere to stop for a bit." Zack suggested, agreeing with the opinion that icecream cake wasn't the most portable food in the world.

With a nod, Cloud pranced out of the store and looked around. There wasn't exactly any place... scenic down here in the slums, and he frowned... it seemed as if the most viable seating options they had to choose from were a scrapmetal pipe fown the street, bent so that a long flat section faced up while the ends were driven down into the ground... a recovered train seat just across the way... and a heavilly graffittied and slumping bench just outside the store. However, something else seemed to have caught the boy's eye. He looked off to their right where the street disappeared into a gate through a wall, and just beyond that, a playground... He smiled and started off toward it.

Zack gave a small laugh as he followed Cloud out of the icecream parlor. So cute. Happily, he followed after his friend, pausing at the underpass of a mass of wires above him when he spotted the park. Aerith ... The park. He stopped, frozen. This was the first time he'd thought about her for a long time...

Biting his lip and slowly following after Cloud, Zack suddenly felt guilty for at least not checking up on how she was doing sooner. Well, since things were a little more stable, it couldn't hurt to drop by and say 'hi' later...

Cloud had stopped just inside the fence gate of the park, looking around for an appropriate place to sit. There were no children around at this hour, so he stood there in the abandoned area debating - swings or giant teddybear slide-thing? Eventually the convenience of the swings was beaten out by the novelty of the slide, and he made his way over to it, struggling a little bit to get up the slope (which he only now realized wasn't large enough to fit two at the top) and pulling himself up onto the 'head' of the structure, sitting down between the ears. From his new vantage point, he wondered idly how Zack was going to make the climb while holding the cake.

When Zack had reached the foot of the slide, he regarded it with a thoughtful expression.

"Gosh Cloud, is it just me or are you putting on some weight?" he teased lightly. "Didn't even leave any room up there for me."

Without waiting for a response, Zack maneuvered the cake box under his arm and leapt nimbly onto the top of the slide. His free hand quickly darted out and latched onto one of the ears before he could slide off.

"There we go. Take the cake will you, Spike?"

His face a picture of hurt and shock at the tease, Cloud snatched the cake possessively out of Zack's grasp, and lightly reached out a hand against the other's chest to shove him back down. It was all in good fun, of course, but see if he let him get any of this cake now... nevermind that Zack had bought it. Sliding out one of the forks, Cloud worked and prying open the box at began to chow down.

"Yikes!" Zack cried out, having not expected Cloud to try and make him fall. The black-haired man's grip on the plastic surface of the ear slipped and he fell backwards, landing on the ground with a 'whumpf' and cloud of dust.

"Ah... that was cold!" he pouted, brushing off his clothes as he stood. "At least leave some for me, or I'm making you sleep on the floor tonight," Zack threatened, though his good-natured grin belied him.

At the moment, Cloud was completely ignoring the cake for the fit of giggles that came over him at seeing Zack hit the ground so ungracefully. After he recomposed himself, and got his breath back, Cloud turned, carefully balancing the cake on a relatively flat part of the head so that he could lean down over the edge where Zack had fallen off. He held out a slender hand to the other man for help getting back up, and offered a faint smile.

"Thanks, buddy," Zack smiled, taking Cloud's hand and borrowing him for leverage.

Back on the slide again, Zack shifted back over to one of the ears. This time he opted to sit out with his legs spread out on either side of it and loosely hug the hunk of plastic rather than holding onto it from the top with one hand.

"So..." he started slowly, eyeing the icecream cake. "Wanna share some of that?" the elder asked, looking from where both of his arms were around the bear slide's ear and back to Cloud again.

For a moment, the boy didn't catch Zack's meaning, and he looked carefully from the cake to Zack, up... stared him in the face, then back down, trying to understand...

Oh! That was it. He just didn't want to fall back down... Cloud grinned and obligingly pulled the cake back onto his lap, cutting off a corner with the side of his fork and carefully transporting it across the distance to the other's mouth where he paused for the other to take it in. A thought ocurred to him, and he took a moment to try and find it all before speaking.

"Is this how you had to do it with me?" When it came out, the words were still vague and unspecific, but context would help. He had no memory of it, but he had to have eaten something during the year they were on the run.

When the treat was offered to him, Zack happily took the spoon into his mouth along with the clump of sweet icecream on it.

While he swallowed, he thought his answer over.

"Well, sort of..." Zack frowned slightly, having not quite been ready to answer questions about the past. "You couldn't really eat solids so most of the time I sorta ... blended stuff up for you. I can tell you it didn't taste very good, but hey, since it was all going to the same place anyway, I figured, what the heck. You didn't seem to mind at the time, in any case."

Cloud flushed slightly at this response... though really, given the situation back then, there really was no glamorous answer, and nodded, segmenting off another piece of cake and offering it to Zack. More thoughts assaulted his brain, more words that wanted out, but he wasn't sure he could vocalize... "Thanks." he finally said, one thing he knew he could do, "For... for..." he had to find it, had to, was utterly determined and closed his eyes to think for a moment, and then, "...for taking care of me."

Zack smiled, licking his lips free from any icecream residue from what Cloud had just spooned him.

"Of course. We're friends."

There was a smile on his lips at the response - a big one... the next piece of icecream cake went to himself, and he held it in his mouth thoughtfully for a moment, staring out into the abandoned park. When he was finished with the icecream, and swallowed, he leaned over slowly, not caring the least if he was being obvious, and pressed his lips to Zack's for just a moment... it was quick- almost a throw away seal and unseal and he was gone, looking thoughtful again. Hmm... a kiss... went good with icecream.

The silence had been comfortable while it had lasted, and then, seeing that Cloud was drawing closer, Zack instinctively moved to meet him halfway. The kiss had been quick; temporary... But it left Zack with the weird feeling of wanting more. It sat unfamiliar, but not unwelcome.

"Mm, Cloud?" Zack hummed. "Are you enjoying your icecream?"

"It's good," he mentioned with an enthusiastic nod, cutting and offering Zack another piece. "Almost done, though." He looked down at the now oddly-shaped and slightly melted lump that was left. Soon they would go back off into the slum market and he would get that second thing he'd been planning on...

"We can always get more later," Zack shrugged, dipping a spoon into the cake again.

Tapping the end of his spoon thoughtfully, he turned his gaze over to Cloud. "So, what's this clever plan of yours, after this?"

"Gotta get one more thing," he said, carving off a big piece of the cake and shoving it into his mouth, leaving the tray now mostly empty as he left the piece he was currently eating to melt slowly before he swallowed it.

Zack nodded and poked the last of the icecream - now a puddle - with his plastic fork before dropping it into the tray.

"Okay then. You're the boss," he grinned, adjusting his hold around the plastic ear and resting his chin on top of it.

Cloud smiled thoughtfully and tossed his fork inside as well, closing the container up. He shifted his position on top of the bear, lowering himself down and sliding the the ground at the bottom, where he promptly found his way to a trashbin and threw out the empty cake tray.

"Let's go." he beckoned.

Nodding, Zack slid down the slide after Cloud, hoping that it wouldn't be too late when they were finally able to go visit Aerith.

It was hard to believe that he hadn't seen the flowergirl for nearly half a decade. He owed her that much to go see her again, though it would have to be a careful affair. If Shinra was still watching her, well ...

"After you," Zack smiled, gesturing towards the exit.


	7. No Need To Explain

**Author's Note:** Hey, SHEVAL here! Look, I managed to get the next chapter in _exactly_ one month after the last one, and no later! Aren't you proud of me? Yeah, I've been so busy at college… it's been hard keeping up with the fanfic writing, but I shall persevere! You know what would help with the motivation, though? If you left a pretty little review! Hope you like it, even though this is another one that's a little mundane…

---

Cloud made for the gate, trying to recall exactly how to get to where he wanted to go. It was… that way, and down a few sidestreets… after a bit of pausing and thought, he found the way, eventually ending his walk in front of a slightly shabby-looking bookstore. It was no worse than any of the other buildings down here in the slums… and that fact alone could very well account for most of the flaws in its appearance… combined with the fact that it probably got very little business.

Upon arrival, Zack tilted his head curiously at the building in front of them. The sign was so old, it was a little hard to make out the symbol of a book on it.

"You've been here before?" Zack asked, walking up to the store window and trying to peek through the badly scuffed glass to see inside.

Shaking his head, the boy corrected "I saw it before." and went in. The door jarred a little bell, which rang faintly as he pushed it open. Inside was relatively brightly lit, and a mousy woman behind the counter at one end looked up in surprise to see a customer walking through, especially at this late hour. She smiled warmly to him and gave a nod of recognition before going back to the book she was reading. Cloud seemed relieved that he didn't have to speak to her, and instantly darted off down one of the aisles, apparently looking for something in particular.

Zack too was smiled at, to which he nodded and gave a small wave. It was a rather quaint little store, and the black-haired man had lingered a little while in the front skimming over some of the selections of books before hurrying after Cloud.

As he passed into the aisle after the blonde, he glanced at the many leatherbound books squeezed into the shelves, wondering what Cloud could possibly be looking for here. Which reminded him, they were already in a bookstore, so maybe he could buy that cookbook while they were here...

Cloud seemed to have slowed down in one of the center aisles, and was regarding a set of very large books with thoughtful interest. After a while, he selected one and pulled it out - a relatively new-looking copy of the dictionary. "This." he said to Zack, turning around as the man approached, "I need this."

"A dictionary, huh?" Zack peered closer at the book before nodding.

"Okay. Go on and meet me at the front. I'll pay for us when I get there- just remembered that I need to go get that cookbook," he explained, looking over at the shelves. How the heck did they arrange their stuff?

Nodding understanding, the boy hurried to the front counter, where he set his book down and waited. The lady at the register glanced at him oddly, then flashed a hesitant smile, which he eagerly returned, apparently seeing nothing awkward in just standing there expectantly, not doing anything... he shifted from foot to foot slightly, hands in his pockets, scanning the other nearby aisles for the return of Zack.

It took several minutes for him to actually locate the correct shelf where the cooking books were and a few more just to locate a good book itself. There were some pretty weird recipes there. Cactuar salad with gysahl greens... Zack knew for a fact that gysahl greens did not taste good.

Returning once again to the front of the shop, he gave Cloud an apologetic smile before pushing his own book forward.

"We'll take these."

Cloud didn't seem to mind, but the woman running the shop seemed quite relieved that the strange - and kind of cute, but mostly strange - boy wouldn't be staring at her anymore. She glanced over the books, flipped them onto their backs, and punched the prices into the antiquated register. "That'll be 25 gil, please." she said.

Nodding, Zack fished out the exact amount of gil and handed it to the tender behind the counter.

Once their goods were bagged and their dues paid, he bade the woman goodbye as they left. It really was a nice little store once you figured out where everything was... they had to come back sometime.

"Shall we head home or do _still_ have places you wanna go? It's starting to get a little late."

"I'm good." Cloud said softly, hugging the bag almost protectively to his chest. He couldn't wait to start reading... all those words he used to know... now he'd get them back again. Plus more, probably. The thought excited him. He'd be back to normal in no time with this... or so he hoped. "Let's go home." he suggested.

Nodding agreeably, Zack scratched the side of his head as they walked down the street. He'd totally forgotten to pay attention to where they were going when Cloud had initially led them here. Yeah, he sort of remembered walking down this way... Cloud would tell him if he was going in the wrong direction if he was wrong, at least.

Cloud felt fairly secure in his knowledge of the Midgar streets... that had come back to him more quickly than other things, and he walked through them, turning corners, taking shortcuts, even. He would find himself ahead of Zack at times, and always stopped to let the man catch up, sometimes beckoning impatiently and calling to him. It almost became a game... of tag, or hide and seek, or something... and in his haste to get ahead again, he darted forward and rounded a corner... and crashed.

It was something soft that had hit him - rather that he had hit - and it gave a bit of a startled yelp as they crashed back in a jumble onto the pavement together. Cloud instantly sprung up, having been mostly cushioned by the thing he landed on, and more than eager to get away, given the nature of most of his other encounters in Midgar so far... he backpedaled quickly to the corner again and glanced around it to see if Zack was coming.

"I'm coming, I'm coming. Can't a guy enjoy a stroll down the street?" he asked, with a small laugh when he saw Cloud's head poke out from behind the edge of a building. Zack frowned, however, upon seeing the slightly panicked look on his companion's face.

Hurrying over, Zack looked his friend up and down to make sure he was alright. Nothing wrong... Although it seemed like he might have tripped on something because his clothes were dirty.

"What's wro-" he started, straightening up and looking behind Cloud. "... Aerith!" the man exclaimed, seeing the flowergirl just start to get up from the floor.

In the middle of the sidewalk, flowers strewn around her, a girl lay... she winced slightly in pulling herself up, raising an arm and glancing at a scraped elbow with a bit of a frown. A basket hung over her arm and a few more flowers remained inside of it - those which had been spared from the fall, and she paid more care to them and the others that had not been so badly crushed or damaged on the pavement than she did her own slight injury.

The voice brought her back, though... instant familiarity, and it knew her name. She looked up, green eyes wide and stammered disbelievingly, "Za-Zack...?" she managed, for now ignoring the blonde beside him. The girl scrambled quickly to her feet, leaving the basket on the ground, and rushed forward, throwing her arms around him. Yes, he was real, and solid, and _there_, finally... "Zack! I-it's been..." she tried to think, but the exact span of time he'd been gone would not come to her. She was still reeling in relief from the fact that he'd _returned_.

"Woah... long time no see," he returned, looking as disbelieving as she did. He hadn't expected to see her down here, but then, it was probably no surprise since they weren't too far off from where her house should be... It felt strange, seeing her again, but he was deeply grateful to the fact that Tseng had held off the Turks; or at least maintained orders of "keeping watch" on her.

"It's been four years," Zack finished, patting down the flowergirl's hair in an affectionate fashion. "How have you been?"

"Worried." Aerith answered honestly, pulling back to arm's length and tilting her head to the side as she looked over Zack. "Where've you been? I sent so many letters and... you never responded." she lightly bit her lower lip, "But I kept up the flower business." the girl smiled, indicating her basket over on the ground.

Cloud seemed confused... who was this girl that he'd randomly bumped into? Zack seemed to know her, which meant she wasn't dangerous. Meekly, he crept closer, peering around the ex-SOLDIER's side to get a look.

"That's great, Aer, keep it up! And ... I'm really sorry about your letters. They never reached me," the man said apologetically, his gaze falling to the flower basket. He was going to have to buy several of those before this night was out.

"Oh! I totally forgot," Zack exclaimed, feeling Cloud beside him. He took a small step to the side, at least enough so that Aerith could see his face.

"This is my friend Cloud. Cloud, this is m-... uh.. Aerith."

"Nice to meet you!" Aerith said happily, holding out a hand and bobbing her knees in a gesture that seemed to slightly resemble a curtsy.

Cloud looked at Zack cluelessly... well… he had introduced them. Timidly, he reached forward and took her hand, giving it a very light shake and retreating back without a word. He stared at his fingers. What an odd feeling... though, maybe it was just a static shock. The girl felt so... charged and full of life. It was rare to see down here in Midgar, and it rocked him strangely.

She suppressed a soft giggle at the strange boy's expense and turned her attentions back on Zack once more, "Where have you been this whole time?" she asked, her voice still tinted with worry.

Zack furrowed his brow a moment, considering his answer. He didn't want to get _too_ descriptive, because that would just get the flowergirl on a fuss about them.

"Traveling ... or rather, trying to keep away from some unfriendlies," the man explained, looking guilty. "It was hard getting back here, and me and my friend here are actually trying to settle down after so long."

"Oh, I see..." she didn't, quite... four years spent travelling without sending her any word? But she didn't want to push it, Zack seemed uncomfortable, and Cloud... well she didn't know what to think about him. She got a funny feeling from the boy... not bad, just funny, like seeing him was like looking through warped glass - you couldn't see the full picture, and what you could was strange and distorted.

"Well, I wouldn't suggest the slums if you can possibly manage it." she laughed, "They only seem to have gotten worse." After all, ShinRa had used to keep their fingers out of lower-plate business... too unconcerned with what went on down there to care, but now they were taking an interest... and more often than not, they supported the underhanded, crime-run businesses and helped them thrive. Yes, it was definitely worse.

But that reminded her of something, and as she looked Zack over again, she mentioned it, "It's strange seeing you without your uniform on..."

"Ah... " Zack frowned at that. Had they really gotten worse? Or perhaps he'd been away from Midgar far too long to be able to tell anything different? Steeped in those worried thoughts, the black-haired man looked up when Aerith had noted his appearance.

"Oh... yeah. I sort of..." Zack trailed off, looking upwards and making a circular gesture with his hand, "Quit."

Right. If only he could have. While there had been rumors about how the Turks handled "quitters", Zack really had never known what happened to SOLDIERs who wished to leave the company. Most of them just died while on duty...

"Oh." Aerith said, unsure how to feel about it. On the one hand, she didn't have to worry about conflicting interests from the man anymore, on the other... how did one just quit SOLDIER? Especially someone who'd reached so high a rank as Zack? Had he deserted like those other men she'd heard those vague stories from him about years ago? She didn't let it bother her, though, and merely smiled, reaching out and putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Well, good for you. I'm assuming you're doing something else now... otherwise if you need any help with... anything, you can stop by the church and ask me." she smiled. Life had improved since the start of the flowerselling 'business'. It was always good to have a little extra gil around. "I'll hope you'll come and stop by anyway." she added shyly. "But good luck. I need to be going because it's late and mom worries." then, in a quick motion, she rose up onto her tip-toes and pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth - an annoyingly noncommittal placement that was neither a casual peck on the cheek, nor a romantic kiss on the lips. But after that, she was gone, turning and hurrying off back down the street.

Behind him, Cloud stiffened and his eyes went wide. No... way...! He felt a burning of something in his throat and couldn't tell what it was. Aerith wasn't supposed to kiss Zack! It seemed... invasive and... and... he wasn't even sure what. The boy's shoulders slumped and his eyes hit the ground. He'd thought... Zack had said... well, what had he said, after all? That a kiss was something between two people who had known eachother for a long time... and really liking and expressing emotions or something... yeah, that was it. But then... his head hung. Well, he supposed he wasn't the only person Zack really liked, then.

Zack started to say that he still wanted to buy one of Aerith's flowers, but by the time the kiss was given, the brunette had already disappeared down the street. Scratching the back of his head with a shake of his head, he laughed slightly.

"That girl... always in a hurry to somewhere," Zack mused as he turned to look at Cloud with a small smile... only to find that the poor kid looked like a wilted flower. Even his hair seemed less spiky.

Looking worried, Zack used his hand to tilt the blonde's head up so that he was looking at him.

"Cloud? What happened? Why so blue?" he asked.

Cloud blinked a few times while staring up at the other man, his expression firmly set into a pout. He shook his head fervently, a decided answer of 'not telling'. He hoisted his bag up slightly and shifted on his feet, impatient to go and get back home. He wanted to find the word for that fiery feeling he'd just had... somewhere in the massive dictionary he'd bought, it was hiding.

Looking slightly put out, Zack nodded in acceptance of the blonde's response. He wasn't going to push any answers from his friend, but damned if the curiosity and worry wasn't already eating at him.

"Okay, then... I'll always be around if you feel like telling me," he told Cloud with an encouraging smile. Zack looked back over the relatively empty street. "Well, hopefully now we won't have any more interruptions on our walk home."

He nodded in understanding and in agreement, starting out hesitantly in the direction they'd been going before they, well... before he had run into Aerith. Cloud walked slow this time, having learned from that recent experience that he never knew who might be around any corner. He didn't look back to check if Zack was following, just stayed especially quiet and waited to hear the footsteps. Soon they would be back.

The whole time they were walking back, Zack was trying to figure out what he might've done to upset Cloud. Had it been something he'd done in the bookstore? ... no... Perhaps Cloud was angry about bumping into Aerith? Nah.

... or it could have been Aerith's parting "gift". Zack winced. He was going to have to explain that one... though it looked like his explanation would have to wait until Cloud was feeling better. Funny how so many things could happen in one day.

-

"Home sweet home!" he announced, probably less enthusiastically as usual as he threw open the door to their apartment.

More exhausted than he'd realized he'd been, upon the sight of the bed, it was as if a switch had clicked in Cloud's mind. Sleep. He dropped the bag by the bedside and tumbled in, barely remembering to kick off his boots. His body was still sore from his little adventure today, and ached in some of the spots where the bullets had hit... but he could still taste icecream on his tongue. Good and bad. There had been alot of both of that. His eyes drooped. Oh yeah, they had pajamas... he glanced back tiredly at Zack and hoped he wouldn't mention them again tonight. He just didn't care enough to start moving again.

Locking the door behind him, Zack glanced at their closet, then over at Cloud seemed rather fatigued. It didn't seem like he'd get up willingly until morning. Not that anyone could blame him, after that recent scare in the reactor. Hopefully... it wouldn't happen again.

Yawning, Zack pulled off his own shoes and left them beside the door before lazily making his way towards their bed and collapsing onto it.

"If your stomach still hurts or anything, let me know... " Zack mumbled drowsily as he buried his face in his pillow.

As soon as Zack entered the bed, Cloud scooted over and lay against him - it was a habit by now - replacing his spiky head on the pillow as well. "Goodnight, Zack." he murmured, pawing at the man's arm hopefully. Last night they'd kissed... he wondered if they'd do the same today. Some variables might have affected that, he didn't know... tonight, Zack had been kissed by Aerith... and the two of them had before that, in the playground. Did that fill the kiss-quota for the day? It aggravated him... the concept was such a simple one, and he knew he'd understood it more fully once, but now... it was a mechanic that still puzzled the boy.

"Hm..?" Zack looked up and smiled softly. "Night, Spike," the man said, pressing a light kiss on the blonde's lips. He paused a moment, wondering if now would be a good time to mention Aerith. After all this time, even he wasn't exactly sure if they were still "together" and if Aerith was under that same impression.

While he now knew that he loved Cloud, that didn't mean he didn't care for Aerith. His feelings for her had merely changed into more of a... brotherly thing.

"Earlier... did what Aerith did upset you?" he asked kindly, turning on to his side so that he was completely facing Cloud.

The broad grin that had briefly spread over the boy's face went away with the 'serious talk' Zack had brought up. He opened his eyes again and stared at the other solemnly before hanging his head down and giving a noncommittal shrug, followed by a bashful nod. He wrapped his fingers around a bit of the hemline of Zack's shirt, working it in his hand stressfully.

"Ah... I'm sorry," Zack apologized sincerely as he placed one hand comfortingly over Cloud's, where he was playing with the fabric in such a distressed manner.

"That was more of a friendly goodbye than anything else. Like... " he trailed off, looking for words to describe the kiss Aerith had given him, "If a friend were to kiss you on the cheek, he cares about you. But not like he would to a lover."

"Are we lovers, Zack?" Cloud asked instantly, unhooking his fingers from the hem of Zack's shirt to lock them together with the other man's. He looked up innocently into his eyes, blinking.

That one caught him off guard, and Zack floundered a moment for answers.

"Well, uh... " he started, furrowing his brow. "Not exactly," the elder said carefully, not wanting to upset Cloud, "I mean yes, we love each other, but we haven't exactly... made love... yet?" Zack finished, though it sounded more like a question than a complete answer.

Cloud nodded in understanding, closing his eyes again and curling up, keeping his vicelike hold on the other's hand. "When will we do that?" he asked quietly a moment later, almost as an afterthought.

Maybe he should have just kept his mouth shut...

"When you're ready," Zack answered, hesitating a moment before adding, "When we're both ready. But for now ... get some sleep, okay? You can ask more questions tomorrow."

Nodding again, the boy went silent and still beside him. His grip on Zack's hand loosened slightly, but stayed in place. It wasn't long before his breathing had evened and he'd fallen into slumber.

-

That following morning, Zack awoke to the rather harsh sounding ringing of his PHS, which also was vibrating rather rudely against the side of his leg. Ah, right, he'd never bothered to take it out of his pocket... Groaning softly and trying not to disturb Cloud, he reached for his phone and flipped it open.

"Hello?" he muttered.

"Oh! Did I call at a bad time?" Wedge's voice on the other end asked.

"No, no... you've got me awake now. What's up?" Zack yawned.

"Ah. Well, sorry for waking you up. I was wondering if you'd want to come down and help for another mission down at Sector 5."

Again? As if they hadn't caused enough destruction last night… although, Zack had been a little more concerned about Cloud at the time to have seen the extent of their damage.

"Sure, I guess... "

"Okay, great!" Wedge said brightly across the line, "Tifa's running the show this time, so be here on time when we need you. There'll be food!" he said this last part most excitedly. "See ya then!" then he hung up.

Cloud blearily looked up as the call ended, his hair even more frazzled than usual. His eyes were barely half open and he looked generally unhappy to already be awake.

"Huh. It sounds more like a party than a mission," Zack mused as he threw his phone haphazardly onto the end table beside their bed.

Turning his gaze over to Cloud, the man gave a small, apologetic smile. "Sorry. Did I wake you?" he asked, trying to get some of Cloud's hair into "order", purely out of curiosity to see if it would actually neaten up some.

The hair stuck up stubbornly, despite Zack's messing with it. Cloud shook his head and rubbed at one of his eyes. He sat in the middle of the bed, surrounded by blankets, with his hands in his lap looking confused for a little while before something seemed to occur to him. He seemed to pop up, bounced out of his bed, and ran over to the table where the bag from the previous night was sitting. He slipped the dictionary from it and plopped back down on the chair, opening it up to the first page.

A... Aardvark... a large nocturnal burrowing mammal...

...oookay. Cloud had woken up pretty quick. Zack shook his head exasperatedly and wordlessly watch the blonde scan through the contents of the book before finally walking over to him and placing his hand over Cloud's eyes.

"Hey, you, no reading until you've brushed your teeth, got it?" Zack asked with a small grin, even though the blonde couldn't see it.

Cloud gave a childish groan and set the dictionary down, getting to his feet and hurrying off to the bathroom. Once he got there, it occurred to him that he should probably put on new clothes and try and do something with his hair too. He made a face at himself in the mirror while squirting too much toothpaste onto his brush. That would seriously cut into his dictionary-reading time. Oh well... it had to be done. He couldn't go anywhere looking like this... and from what little he overheard of the phone conversation, there was a meeting scheduled… sometime.

It was still fairly early in the morning in any case, so Zack only rolled his eyes at his friend's behavior before wandering towards their bed and digging out the other book in the bag.

Settling down on the edge of the bed and skimming through his purchase, Zack waited for Cloud to vacate the bathroom so he'd be able to use it next. Chocobo-berry waffles ... hmm, they looked pretty good...

Cloud took a characteristically long time before coming back out and setting upon the drawer with his new clothes in it. He found something apparently adequate and began to undress, once again ignorant of modesty and not waiting for Zack to exit the room.

Automatically looking up when Cloud had exited, Zack started to say that he'd give making breakfast a try when he noticed the blonde's rather apparent nakedness.

"Aw, Cloud! For the love of..." he broke off his sentence as he brought the book up to cover his eyes. Zack stayed like this for several moments, then... he risked a peek over the top of the book.

By the time Zack looked up again, Cloud had already pulled on boxers, and had gotten a pair of jeans most of the way up. He finally worked them over his butt and snapped them closed. The blonde was oblivious to Zack's watching him, and probably couldn't have cared less if he caught him anyway. A black wifebeater completed the ensemble, and he went back to sit at his chair in front of the dictionary.

Abacus... a device for making arithmetic calculations, consisting of a frame set with rods on which balls or beads are moved.

Well, this hadn't been a particularly helpful purchase yet.

"Hmm, cute," Zack smiled, pressing the blonde's nose as he passed by on his way to grab his own clothes. Cloud's nose scrunched up from the touch, and he raised his heavy book a little higher in front of his face as future defense after Zack left.

There hadn't been anything inside the cookbook, from what he'd seen so far, that they had the materials to make, but there was probably at least _one_ thing somewhere in there that he could make.

Minutes later after Zack had left the bathroom, he wasn't surprised to see that Cloud was still flipping through the dictionary.

"Learn anything useful?" he asked as he walked lazily towards the kitchen.

"Not yet." Cloud sighed softly, already beginning to thumb through the pages rather than read them from cover to cover like he'd been planning to do. He'd only gotten halfway through the A's. This way, there was a better chance of catching a glimpse of something he knew, and reading those words individually… perhaps it would go faster that way. "You?" he asked curiously, "What's for breakfast?"

"Good question," Zack responded, running a hand through his hair. "I'll find something. Keep looking in that dictionary," he encouraged, stopping to retrieve his book before retreating into the kitchen. "But if you get bored and want to come help me, let me know!" the man laughed as he thumbed through the pages.

Cloud seemed skeptical about this idea, looking up from his book and eyeing Zack, "...but last time I helped, there was..." oh, wait, he knew this word! It started with an 'f'... he held up one finger as a motion for the other to wait as he looked back down and rapidly flipped pages across, that finger lowering to trace down the length of the page as he looked for it. Aha! "...there was fire." he finished up.

Fire... it clicked into place in his head, like the puzzle-piece that some gaping hole had always meant to house, but it brought with it unpleasant things. Heat, he felt it crawling up his body on all sides, sweat dripping down... he tasted acrid smoke and ash, smelled it, felt his eyes burn with it. He saw the red light flickering across the ruined walls of Nibelheim, across what had once been his house, giving life to the shadows of the dead, making them dance even as their corpses stood still.

"No..." he moaned softly, clutching his head and lowering it down toward his knees, curling up on the chair and pressing his face to the insides of the book. "No, I don't want to..." he decided.

The sudden silence after the sound of Cloud's page flipping made Zack poke his head from out of the kitchen doorway just as the blonde started speaking again.

Fire... well, he knew Cloud had a particularly bad relationship with that certain word. Were they bringing flashbacks? He frowned. It had to be...

"Alright. Keep reading then. I'll be finished soon," Zack promised, ducking back inside and moving more quickly through the contents of the book. He paused at one picture. Sausage omelettes. That looked simple enough. Clamping his book shut, Zack made for the refrigerator and started pulling out the various ingredients.

Slowly, Cloud nodded, recovering and doing what he was told. He kept reading, page by page his blue eyes danced across the patterns of words, looking for something he recognized. He found 'gun', he found 'happy', he found 'Ifrit', he found 'mako', 'materia', 'murder', he found 'Nibelheim'... he stopped... and he stared for a while. Then he closed the book and turned to the binding on the side to find a publishing date. Ah yes, it was ten years old. They wouldn't have added the fact that Nibelheim was only ashes now... or they hadn't just gotten rid of the entry alltogether or whatever ShinRa did. Either way, the thoughts went buzzing through Cloud's mind, and he was done for now... besides, whatever Zack was making seemed to have not burned, and smelled quite good. Setting the book on the table in front of him, he stood and wandered into the kitchen.

When Cloud had entered, Zack looked up from the sizzling pan as he slid two nicely cooked omelettes onto their plates.

"Ah, come to visit me?" he grinned, offering a plate to the blonde so that they could both take one back to the small table. "Since this attempt wasn't a total disaster, I'm rather proud of myself. Tell me how it tastes," Zack said, sliding out a chair and sitting down.

Cloud sat down across the table from Zack, pulling his plate over and carefully cutting off a bite for himself. He slipped the steaming piece into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. "It's delicious." he put emphasis on the new word. It basically meant the same thing as 'good' did, only specifically referred to food. It was only after relearning all these things that Cloud was beginning to realize how truly unnecessary most of the language was. It could still be used quite effectively if simplified. These idle musings played through his mind as he continued to eat, no longer dwelling on the darker thoughts that had chased him from his book and into this room.

"Awesome," Zack stopped to say before helping himself to his own share of omelette. He nodded approvingly. "Not bad." The two continued eating their breakfast in silence until Zack finally placed down his fork and looked at Cloud seriously.

"Okay, Cloud. Today, we're seriously going to give you some heavy-duty training with that new sword of yours. Sound cool?"

At this, Cloud perked up. Sword training! It was exactly what he wanted to do! He wanted to learn... to be taught by Zack. Zack was an expert in his art... and if he did well enough fast enough, soon he'd be battling right beside him. Last night didn't count. He'd had to sneak out after him, and he'd gotten hurt, and in general it had been a huge disaster. Things would be different from now on. "Sounds awesome." he grinned.

"Great, 'cause by the time I'm through with you, you won't be able to feel your arms and legs," Zack laughed, placing the last of his meal into his mouth before dropping his fork onto his plate. "Hmm. We'll start with some basic stuff... Squats – plenty of those – push-ups, crunches, stretching exercises..." he absently listed off as he stood.

With every respective exercise that Zack listed, Cloud's face fell more and more... well, it made perfect sense. He had the strength, now, to use his sword... though not the stamina to keep going with it for very long. He wasn't particularly acrobatic - infantrymen didn't need to know that, so he'd never been taught. Still, it seemed really un-fun... and as if there wouldn't be all that much actual sword training happening for a while. By the time Zack had finished with his list he was staring disappointedly at the ground, nudging the remaining eggs around his plate.

Looking back to see Cloud's crestfallen expression, Zack couldn't help but give a small smile. "Aw, c'mon Spike, it's not that bad. That isn't nearly _half_ the stuff Angeal made me do," the black-haired man sighed with a shake of his head as he turned back to ruffle Cloud's hair. "We'll get started as soon as you finish those eggs."


End file.
